When Sports Were Played: For one game in 2001, Pirates were a real hit
Comeback Week continues in “When Sports Were Played” with a Pittsburgh Pirates game from July 28, 2001, the opener of the first day-night doubleheader played at PNC Park. The Pirates overcame three home runs by Houston’s Vinny Castilla and scored seven runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Astros.
Saddled with a six-run deficit against Houston, and having the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth inning retired Saturday afternoon, it would have been easy for somebody in the Pirates’ lineup to make the final out.
Any player – take your pick from Kevin Young, Pat Meares, Adam Hyzdu, Tike Redman, Jack Wilson, Jason Kendall and Brian Giles – who stepped to the plate could have struck out or hit a feeble grounder against Houston relievers Mike Jackson and Billy Wagner. If one of those Pirates failed to reach base, then nobody at PNC Park – or the thousands of fans who left during previous two innings – would have been surprised.
This was, after all, a game that Houston seemed destined to win, thanks to Vinny Castilla. All the Astros’ third baseman did was hit three home runs.
“The guys weren’t starting to head back to the clubhouse just yet,” Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon pointed out. “I just said, ‘Let’s start swinging the bats and see what happens.'”
Hit, the Pirates did. And they didn’t stop until seven runs had scored, and Giles smacked a dramatic game-winning grand slam off Wagner that gave the Pirates an improbable 9-8 victory in the first game of the initial day-night doubleheader in Pittsburgh.
Houston gained a split by winning the night contest, 12-3.
The only other National League team to score seven runs in the ninth inning, after having two outs and nobody on base, was the 1952 Chicago Cubs, who did it against Cincinnati. But did the Cubs do it on only 16 pitches like the Pirates did?
“Baseball is a funny game. You never know what’s going to happen until the final out is made,” said McClendon. “That was just short of amazing.”
Short of amazing? The guy obviously has high expectations.
The short-of-amazing comeback started when Young hit a seemingly harmless two-out single off Jackson. Meares followed with a two-run homer that made it 8-4. Still, only the most optimistic Pirates fan had to be thinking win at this point.
“But that gave us some hope,” said Giles. “I was thinking, if this guy gets on and so does that guy, then I might have a chance to tie or win this thing.”
Hyzdu, a pinch-hitter, kept the rally going by singling on the first pitch through the left side of the infield. Redman then walked on four pitches and Wilson singled to drive in Hyzdu and make it 8-5.
That was all for Jackson as the Astros brought in Wagner (2-4), a hard-throwing, left-handed closer who had converted 18 consecutive save opportunities. Wagner, however, hit Kendall with his second pitch to load the bases for Giles.
Houston manager Larry Dierker said that Wagner had the option of pitching around Giles.
“It was there if he wanted to do it, and he’d still be in good shape,” Dierker said. “But I don’t think it’s in Billy’s nature to pitch around somebody.”
Wagner’s first pitch was a ball – high and inside.
“They had beaten me inside this series,” Giles said. “I figured a guy throwing 97, 98 (mph) was going to throw it in there and make me beat him with his best pitch. He did.”
And Giles beat him decisively. The Pirates’ clean-up hitter turned on a Wagner fastball and hit a line drive into the right-field seats for his 24th home run.
“Yeah, I knew it was gone,” said Giles, who pumped his first into the air while trotting to first base.
“And I never give high-fives to (first-base coach) Tommy Sandt. This was the first time I tried it, he knows it’s coming and wouldn’t you know it, we miss. It didn’t look very good down at first base.”
It looked much better at home plate, where Giles’ arrival triggered a wild celebration by a team that has had little reason for revelry this season.
The home run wasn’t Giles’ only big play of the game. In the fourth inning, he made a leaping catch at the six-foot high wall in left field to rob Castilla of a home run.
“It would have landed in the first row,” said Giles. “Nobody reached over, which was amazing.”
Had Giles not made the catch, Castilla would have homered in each of his first four at-bats and tied a major-league record for home runs in a game. Castilla hit a solo shot in the first inning and a three-run blast in the fifth, both off Bronson Arroyo. Castilla led off the eighth with a home run off Omar Olivares (5-7), who was the winning pitcher despite giving up four runs in two innings.
In the night game, Pirates starter Jimmy Anderson (6-10) gave up eight runs in three-plus innings as Houston forged an 8-0 lead.