6/20 From 1970: Petey 5-Spot, Duels, Chico Cha-Cha, Sweep, Hot Hebner, Game Days, Haak Signs, No Games Nowhere, HBD Mack

1971 – Richie Hebner homered, doubled and had four RBI while Pops Stargell added a homer in a 7-1 win over Montreal at TRS in the opener of a twin bill. Steve Blass went the distance for the victory. Stargell hit a grand slam (one of four in the majors on this day) and Al Oliver went 4-for-4 to lead the Pirates to a 7-3 sweep over the Expos in the second game behind Nellie Briles.

1975 – John Candelaria was making his third MLB start and still looking for his first win; it wouldn’t be easy, matched against Tom Seaver and the Mets with 47,867 fans at Shea Stadium. He claimed though it wasn’t as easy as the 5-1 final would suggest. It was 1-1 going into the ninth, with the Bucs only tally on a Willie Stargell bomb. Richie Zisk singled in the go-ahead run, and with two away, Rennie Stennet lined a bases-loaded triple to give Candy Man some working room. He went the distance, giving up four hits, a walk and fanning six. He never saw the minors again; Candelaria remained a Pittsburgh rotation mainstay for a decade and won 124 games in his twelve-year Pirates career.

1976 – Rob Mackowiak was born in Oak Lawn, Illinois. A 53rd round draft pick in 1996, he played five years (2001-05) for the Pirates, hitting .259. 2004 was his highlight season, when he had a career high of 17 home runs/75 RBI. He had a career day on May 28th during a DH against the Cubs at PNC Park, hitting a walk-off grand slam in the first game and a game-tying ninth inning home run in the second, on the same day that his son was born. Rob later played for the White Sox, Padres and several AAA clubs, ending his career in 2010 playing indie ball.

1983 – The Bucs swept the Cubs at TRS, taking a 10-inning 5-4 triumph in the opener and a 6-5 13-inning win in the nightcap, drawing just 5,839 fans to the twilighter. Richie Hebner’s pinch hit homer against Bill Campbell to lead off the 10th gave Kent Tekulve the win in the first game; Jason Thompson also homered. The Cubbies made the second game exciting by scoring twice in the ninth on a two-out single by Ron Cey off Don Robinson. The potential lead run was cut down at the plate when Robby retrieved an errant throw home and got the ball to Steve Nicosia in time to nail Bill Buckner. Robinson later settled in and tossed shutout ball the rest of the way, getting the win when Marvell Wynne singled home Dale Berra to broom Chicago. Berra, Lee Lacy and Jim Morrison went long during the contest, with Berra collecting four hits. The Bucs were floundering at this point (even with the sweep, they were 11 games under .500), but got their act together to hold a share of first in mid-September. Then Philly caught fire and the Bucs went 6-8 down the stretch to finish second, six games off the pace.

Dale Berra – 1983 Donruss

1983 – The 71-year-old “King of the Caribbean Scouts,” Howie Haak, signed a three-year contract with the Bucs as their scouting supervisor. He lasted in that position until 1988, when he left for Houston after a disagreement with GM Syd Thrift, severing a Steel City relationship that began in back 1950. Howie retired in 1993 and passed on in 1999.

1985 – The game at Olympic Stadium featured Rick Rhoden and stolen bases. The Pirates won 2-1 as Rhoden fired a three-hitter over seven frames and drove in the go-ahead run with a fifth inning double before Al Holland closed out the eighth and ninth. The stolen bases impacts: with one out in the eighth, Tony Pena tossed out Tim Raines, who represented the tying run; it was the first time a catcher had caught Raines stealing during the season (he swiped 70 sacks in ‘85). The Pirates opened the scoring when Marvel Wynne stole second, went to third after a bad throw and scored on a sac fly.

1988 – The Mets were up 3-2 at Shea Stadium after six innings and the Bucs were lucky to be that close, scoring their runs thanks to a New York error and two-out wild pitch. But in the seventh, it seemed like every Buccaneer bunt, bloop and bouncer found grass. Pittsburgh put together a string of eight straight singles, two by pinch-hitters, that resulted in a six-spot, and that was plenty to carry them and John Smiley, who went six innings, to an 8-5 victory. The top of the order – Barry Bonds, Chico Lind, Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla – banged out seven hits, scored five times and chased home a pair to propel John Smiley’s victory. Lind also padded his resume with one of his top career plays, catching up to a grounder on the SS side of second, leaping and twisting to get aligned but still managing to put enough mustard on his toss to throw out Tim Teufel.

1993 – The Pirates scored twice in the ninth to edge the Mets 3-2 at TRS. After an intentional walk to Jeff King loaded the bases, John Franco walked in the tying run, losing Kevin Young on a 3-2 pitch. It took some soul searching by Jim Leyland to allow the rookie left-handed hitter to face southpaw Franco with RH Lloyd McClendon available to hit, but he said “You’re trying to groom Kevin Young for the future” and let him bat. The next man up, Don Slaught, singled home the winner. Stan Belinda won in relief of Steve Cooke. With the victory, the Bucs swept the four-game set against the Mets.

Stan Belinda – 1993 Leaf (reverse)

2003 – The Cleveland Indians raced ahead of Josh Fogg and the Pirates 3-0 but a two-out error in the third by Tribe starter Brian Tallet opened the gates; Jason Kendall banged an RBI double following the boot and Aramis Ramirez slammed a three-run shot to give the Bucs the lead. Scott Sauerbeck allowed the Indians to tie it in the eighth, and the game was on. It took 15 innings, but behind four scoreless frames by Salomon Torres (although six hits in that span kept the drama bubbling) and Randall Simon’s homer in the 15th, the Pirates sent the the remnants of a crowd of 26,305 at PNC Park home happy after 4-1/2 hours of baseball after a 5-4 win.

2008 – The Buccos outlasted Toronto 1-0 in 12 innings at PNC Park. Tyler Yates, the last of four Buc pitchers, tossed two innings for the win. Pittsburgh claimed the game when SS John McDonald couldn’t come up cleanly with Jason Michaels’ weak bases-loaded grounder, scoring Doug Mientkiewicz. The two teams combined to strand 21 runners during the game that was started by Zach Duke and Roy “Doc” Halladay; both spun seven scoreless frames.

2010 – The Pirates won their second in a row from the Indians 5-3 at PNC Park when they scored twice in the eighth on a Pedro Alvarez sac fly and Bobby Crosby knock. Pittsburgh had lost 12 consecutive games before the modest streak, and began a six-game losing streak after the contest. Brad Lincoln started the game, Brendan Donnelly got the win and Octavio Dotel picked up the save.

2013 – Pedro Alvarez smacked a single, double and homer to chase home all five runs in the Bucs 5-3 win over the Reds in front of nearly 41,000 fans at GABP. Brandon Cumpton started, reliever Bryan Morris booked the win and Tony Watson claimed the save as St. Louis, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh continued their battle in the NL Central. The division rivals had the three best records in the major leagues on this day and were separated by four games. 

2015 – Max Scherzer no-hit the Bucs at Nationals Park and came within a strike of tossing a perfect game. With two outs in the ninth and an 0-2 count on Jose Tabata, a mini-battle began with JT fouling off several pitches. With the count 2-2, Scherzer tried to sneak a slider past Tabata; it backed up a bit and clipped JT on the elbow pad (Tabata didn’t make much effort to get out of harm’s way, actually leaning into the pitch) to spoil the perfecto. Josh Harrison flew out to the track in left to end it, with Washington claiming a 6-0 win.

Pedro Alvarez – 2013 Panini America’s Pastime

2016 – The Pirates took an unlikely 1-0 victory from the SF Giants at PNC Park. Jeff Locke, who had given up 18 runs in his previous two starts, pulled a U-turn and tossed 6-2/3 IP of five-hit ball against Giant ace Madison Bumgarner, who was on a seven-game winning streak and entered the game with a 1.91 ERA. To boot, the Bucs were on a five-game losing streak while the G-Men had claimed eight straight wins. The winning blow was a homer by Erik Kratz, who was hitting .045, a drive to left field that Angel Pagan’s leap almost pulled back, only to have the ball fall out of his mitt and back over the fence as he crashed into the wall.

2017 – The Pirates used a six-run first inning to power their way to a 7-3 win over the Brewers at Miller Park. Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-3 with a solo homer, three RBI, a walk and two runs scored. José Osuna helped start the party when went deep with a three-run shot in the first frame. Chad Kuhl went five innings for the win but it took six Bucco hurlers to put it away.

2020 – This date marked the 101st straight day without MLB/NHL/NFL/NBA games due to Covid cancellations, the longest stretch of inactivity since the four major pro sports coexisted. The previous record was a 100-day stretch from September through December, 1918, from the end of MLB season to start of NHL season due to World War I and the flu pandemic. (S/O Elias Stats) 

2022 – There was some excitement at PNC Park as SS Oneil Cruz and OF/1B Bligh Madris were called up from Indy as part of a month-long youth movement. And they both came through in spades during the Pirates 12-1 drubbing of the Cubs. In his 2022 debut, Cruz claimed the hardest throw by an MLB infielder this year (96.7 MPH), the hardest hit ball of the year by a Pirate (112.9 MPH) and the fastest sprint speed of the year by a Pirate (31.5 feet per second; 30’ is considered elite) to go along with two hits, four RBI and three runs scored. Madris went 3-for-4 in his MLB debut, first Pirate since Jason Kendall (4/1/1996 v. Florida) to have three hits in his opening outing. He also scored and singled home two runs in his first big league at bat. (Bligh’s now in the Tigers organization.) Daniel Vogelbach chipped in two more hits, and the big guy scored three times while plating a pair of teammates. JT Brubaker went six shutout frames for his first win of the season.