An epic game in PNC Park

There is no good sport writing unless there is a good game and I can unabashedly say this is good sport writing.

When St. Louis Cardinals came to town (the Steel City) July 9, Pirates treated it with the utmost respect as this is the best MLB team; I refrained from calling it a little bird or two little birds.  They took the first of the 4-game series.  Pirates remained calm and evened the series for Game 2, setting the stage for fierce competition; fierce is an understatement; the Game 3 turned out to be an epic game.

It has every element to be called an epic game: lengthy (a bit over 5 hours with no rain delay), full of heroes (McCutchen, Burnett, Alvarez, Kang, Walker, just to name a few), walk off homer and played in grand style.

After going into extra innings, the Cardinals led twice, only to have Pirates tie it in no less dramatic way, sending waves of roller coaster emotions of the nearly 38,000 frenzy Pirates fans.  Why do we need the seats in PNC Park when our heroes got us off the seats again and again.

AJ Burnett

Pirates was swept by the Cardinals (the dreaded “Meet me in St Louis” theme) on May 1-3; Pirates was able to take the series when Cardinals came to town on May 8-10.  A lot have happened since; the two teams have established themselves as the best two teams in the National League or MLB as far as I am concerned. 

The pitcher, A.J. Burnett, took the matter into his own hand to help himself when Pirates was shut down by John Lackey (Cardinals pitcher), trailing 0 to 3 at the bottom of 5^th inning, Burnett hit a homer, the 4^th in his 17-year career as a pitcher, the first since July 24, 2005, nearly 10 years ago.  “You get lucky once in a while”, Burnett said; I said it was a “divine intervention”. 

Burnett’s homer sent the PNC Park into a roar, but didn’t wake up the sleeping lion; Pirates was still trailing 1 to 3 going into the bottom of 8^th inning.  Jung Ho Kang’s and Pedro Alvarez’s RBI single tied for the first time.

Cardinals Mark Reynold’s second homer of the night and Peralta put St. Louis on top twice in the extra innings.  Pirates returned the favor in kind to tie it.

The final climax came at the bottom of 14^th inning (passed the midnight).  Neil Walker (Pittsburgh native) had a lead off single followed by McCutchen’s walk off homer, sending the frenzy 37,318 fans into heaven; who said there is no heaven?

Cardinals and Pirates are not the two best MLB teams for no reason.  Let’s paraphrase Churchill that never in the field of American baseball has so much been owed, by so many, to so few.

The following is from today’s comic strip, Marvin: Marvin and his dad were watching baseball, which put Marvin to sleep; Marvin’s dad was wondering when football season starts.  They obviously didn’t watch the epic game at PNC Park.

Kang

McCutchen

 

Alvarez