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Pittsburgh Pirates (5x WS Champions) Ain't Nutting happenin'

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I've seen the Bucs get shutout on consecutive days by nobodies, yet they're banging around Walker Buehler in Dodger Stadium, because baseball. That's why they play 162.

 
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So the Pirates headed to Los Angeles this week. The Dodgers had won 13 of their last 15 - and owned the best record in the NL when the Bucs arrived - while the Pirates had the worst run differential in the NL this season.

Naturally, the Pirates swept the three-game series in LA. The Bucs took 5 of 6 games from the Dodgers this season. Makes perfect sense. :lol::pirate:
 
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July 25, 1956: Roberto Clemente hits an inside-the-park, walk-off grand slam to lift Pirates

For the sports fan, the smaller-print box in the middle of the front page, “Clemente Again, Pirates Win in Merriwell Finish, 9-8,” provided that first glimpse of a unique baseball feat never seen before and so far never repeated (as of 2018.) The 20-year-old Roberto Clemente brought his exciting style to Pittsburgh in his 1955 rookie season and earned a spot in the Pirates outfield. On this night, he clouted an inside-the-park grand slam off Cubs relief pitcher Jim Brosnan to end the game in a victory for the Pirates, right then and there.

Clemente was a free swinger, an impatient hitter who swung at almost any pitch including those outside the strike zone. He became known as a primary example of a good “bad-ball hitter.” Playing for the Triple-A Montreal Royals in 1954, Jack Cassini was Clemente’s teammate. In Stew Thornley’s interview for Clemente’s biography at the SABR BioProject, Cassini said, “He could hit. He didn’t need a strike. The best way to pitch him was right down the middle of the plate.” In fact, Clemente walked only 13 times in 572 plate appearances in 1956. In one stretch that season, covering 192 plate appearances, he went 50 games without walking.

For a game pitting two teams that would finish the season last and next-to-last in the National League, respectively, the Pirates started their All-Star pitcher, Bob Friend (12-8, 3.24 ERA), and the Cubs countered with Warren Hacker (2-8, 5.37).

The Pirates started the scoring in the fourth inning when Clemente reached on an infield single and Dale Long hit his 20th home run of the season for a 2-0 lead. That home run set a record for Pittsburgh left-handed hitters, previously held by Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan ,who hit 19 in 1935. The Pirates scored their third run in the fifth inning. After Friend singled and Bill Virdon doubled, Bob Skinner was intentionally walked to load the bases for Clemente. No grand slam this time, just a sacrifice fly to center for a 3-0 lead. In the sixth inning, consecutive doubles by Frank Thomas and Jack Shepard added another run and Warren Hacker’s pitching outing was over for the night when he was replaced by Vito Valentinetti.

Meanwhile, Bob Friend was sailing along into the eighth inning on a 4-0 four-hitter, but four singles that produced one run ended his evening. Roy Face, by now being used almost exclusively in relief, came in to pitch and was summarily hammered with doubles by Walt Moryn, Eddie Miksis, and Hobie Landrith each of whom knocked in two runs for a 7-4 Cubs lead. Each team scored once in its next at-bat for an 8-5 Cubs lead. In the case of the Cubs, they scored on three singles against Face after two were out. Nellie King replaced him and ended the top of the ninth inning by striking out Miksis on three pitches. The stage was now set for the dramatic bottom of the ninth inning and the improbable feat about to unfold.

With Turk Lown pitching for the Cubs, a walk to Hank Foiles, a single by Bill Virdon, and another walk to Dick Cole loaded the bases for Clemente. Jim Brosnan relieved Lown and threw one pitch, described by Jack Hernon as “high and inside.” There was no doubt that Clemente would swing. He hit the ball over Jim King’s head in left field and after the ball struck the fencing, it rolled along the cinder warning track toward center field. The three runners easily scored and Clemente ignored the outstretched arms and stop sign of Pirates manager and third-base coach Bobby Bragan as the relay throw came in from center fielder Solly Drake to Ernie Banks to catcher Hobie Landrith. The last moments of the improbable were captured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “He slid, missed the plate, then reached back to rest his hand on the rubber with the ninth Pirate run in a 9-8 victory as the crowd of 12,431 went goofy with excitement.”

Entire article: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/jul...the-park-walk-off-grand-slam-to-lift-pirates/
 
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100 losses in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1950s.

Well done, assholes, and by assholes I'm referring to the front office. The minor leaguers they trotted out there did the best they could.
 
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