I haven’t seen much good baseball from the Pirates at the games I’ve attended, and tonight’s game was no exception through 5 1/2 innings. I’d been in my seat for 2 hours. I was there by myself. The Bucs were down 8-3. I left.
Crap.
On my way to the car, the Cardinals added another run, 9-3. The Pirates scored once in the bottom of the seventh: 9-4 I’m listening in the car, and the Cards add another run in the top of the eighth (the scored in six consecutive innings): 10-4. Bottom of the eighth, Jason Bay cracks a two-run homer (his second of the night), 10-6.
I’m home by the time the bottom of the ninth starts, and I’m switching back and forth between “A Fistful of Dollars” and the what I figure will be the waning moments of the game. Wrong.
Nate McLouth smacks a three-run homer: 10-9. There’s just one out. Rivas singles. Doumit singles, and Rivas goes to third. Bay hits a slow grounder to short — potentially a double-play ball — but the Cardinal second-baseman bobbles the throw and can’t make the relay. Run scores. 10-10.
In the top of the 10th, Cardinal third-baseman Troy Glaus (he’s HUGE by the way) homers to deep left. 11-10.
In the bottom of the 10th, the miracle. Raul Chavez singles. Jason Michaels homers to left. 12-11. Game over.
I got a beach towel. And the Pirate mascot launched a rubber stress ball before the game started that I actually caught.
Pirates win! Pirates win! Pirates win! And I coulda been there!