Friday, August 17, 2007
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For one steamy but sizzling night at PNC Park, everything was as the Pirates must have envisioned it would be in 2007.
Packed house.
Competing with a contender.
Matt Freed, Post-Gazette,
Freddy Sanchez scores in front of Mets catcher Mike DeFelice on a hit by Adam LaRoche in the eighth inning last night.
And Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay coming through as the team's big bats in the middle of the order.
"You know what? I think that's how things will be," LaRoche would say after a 10-7 toppling of the New York Mets tickled an overflow crowd of 36,447 last night. "I know there's a lot of disappointment with how things have gone so far, and I know nobody wants to hear about next year. But I think this is what you're going to see."
So, for one night, never mind the standings.
Never mind that the season's third sellout was lured largely by a fireworks show and Styx concert.
And never mind that LaRoche and Bay had matching .255 averages even after each had three hits. That marked only the seventh time both had multiple hits in the same game, perhaps the most remarkable statistic of the season.
All that mattered for these few hours was that each had a run-scoring single to snap an eighth-inning tie, Bay finishing with three RBIs and LaRoche two to account for half the offense.
Oh, and LaRoche hit a ball out of the stadium, too.
"What a difference it makes when we have those guys going, huh?" manager Jim Tracy said. "Everything about us takes on a different look."
To be sure, this ending had a different look.
The score was 7-7 entering the eighth, and the stage seemed set for the Pirates to fall short again, as they had in losing the first two games of this series.
New York reliever Aaron Heilman got two quick outs, and Freddy Sanchez grounded meekly to third baseman David Wright. But Wright's throw to first sailed into right field, and the uh-oh factor was in play for the Mets.
LaRoche rapped the first pitch he saw into right, and a potentially close play at the plate with Sanchez sprinting home was nullified when catcher Mike DiFelice dropped Marlon Anderson's one-hop throw. DiFelice was charged with an error.
Then, Bay and Jose Bautista delivered RBI singles to left to make it 10-7.
Closer Matt Capps finally recorded his 11th save, his first since July 5, with a scoreless ninth in which he looked determined to throw the ball through Paulino's mitt.
"Lots of fastballs," Capps said, grinning.
Tony Armas spotted New York a 5-0 lead before getting the hook through 2 2/3 innings, a start reminiscent of his miserable first half. The Mets tagged him for six hits, five walks and a two-run home run by Carlos Beltran as his command was nowhere to be found.
"I struggled," Armas said. "But my teammates battled back."
Matt Freed, Post-Gazette,
First baseman Adam LaRoche drives in Freddy Sanchez in the eighth as Pirates rally for a win against the Mets last night before third sellout crowd of season at PNC Park.
LaRoche started that with a monster two-run shot in the fourth, a 431-footer off a flat Brian Lawrence fastball that settled in the landscaping by the Allegheny River's edge. Ronny Paulino's RBI double later that inning cut the Pirates' deficit to 5-3.
"We're not lying down," LaRoche said. "We're not quitting, and you can see it in everybody's eyes."
In the fifth, Bay's two-out single pulled the Pirates within 7-4.
In the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Nate McLouth and Paulino made it 7-5.
They tied it in the seventh on Bay's RBI single and, after Bautista's bunt loaded the bases, Jose Castillo looped a single over shortstop Jose Reyes to bring one of the loudest roars of the year at the Pirates' usually dormant home.
"Great crowd," LaRoche said. "That makes a difference."
Not nearly as much as LaRoche and Bay, the Pirates' only two proven power-hitters, performing to their capabilities.
"It's no secret that we've struggled, both of us, a lot longer than we would have liked," Bay said. "Look at me and what I've gone through these two months. But you know, I think that's true of our whole team. You've seen glimpses, but we've never really put it all together. Hopefully, we can see some more of this as we go along."
Shortstop Jack Wilson exited in the fourth inning because of asthma symptoms. Tracy said it was possible that Wilson had some heat exhaustion, too, as the first-pitch temperature was 82 degrees.
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Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com
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