Sunday, May 25, 2008
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
John Heller/Associated Press
Jason Bay, left, gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning last night, with a two-run home run, his 12th of the season.
It was close to midnight and, all through the Pirates' clubhouse, it was plain to see no one had a trace of leftover energy ...
Jason Bay's knee was wrapped, his face drained and his head surely ringing from teammates pounding his helmet after his RBI single in the 14th inning finally sunk the Chicago Cubs, 5-4, last night at PNC Park.
John Grabow and Matt Capps each had their arms wrapped with maybe a little more in the standard ice after each exceeded his usual workload by putting up three zeroes.
And Doug Mientkiewicz?
Probably passed out somewhere.
"He was sick as you can be," manager John Russell said. "He really gutted it out. I'm telling you. I didn't want to use him, but I had to in the ninth, and we ended up being stuck leaving him out there."
The discomfort was visible for all 29,929 to see in the 13th, when Mientkiewicz tried but failed to beat out a grounder, then took nearly a full minute to walk in an apparent daze back to the dugout.
As a whole, it was the latest of many examples that these Pirates, even though they remain three games under .500, have some intangibles that might have been missing in recent years.
"You've got to dig deep in a game like this," outfielder Xavier Nady said. "But that's nothing new for us. We've been doing it all season."
The 14th opened with Freddy Sanchez's grounder to short off Michael Wuertz, but Ryan Theriot's throw across the diamond was low, Henry Blanco failed to scoop it, and a runner was aboard. Sanchez took second on a wild pitch, then third on Luis Rivas' groundout. Nate McLouth was intentionally walked to bring up Bay.
He had a 1-2 count after three sliders but made no mistake with the first fastball he saw, uppercutting it into the North Side Notch even though it came a little low and tight.
"I'm just looking to get under the ball there," Bay said.
Earlier, Bay hit his 12th home run, a two-run shot in the fourth, and he had two other hits for a 4-for-6 evening that raised his average to .287 and his RBI total to 25.
"He looks like Jason Bay," Russell said. "He's swinging the bat very well, looking very comfortable. This is what he's capable of doing."
Oh, and, remarkably, the RBI single was his first of the year.
"Finally got it," Bay said. "And hey, it would have been a double if not for the walkoff."
His teammates mobbed Bay, and he -- straying a bit from his even-keel character -- seemed to relish it.
Maybe it had something to do with beating the Cubs, who had been 9-1 against the Pirates and had blown them out by nine runs the previous night.
"Obviously, we've had our troubles with them, and it doesn't help that we've faced them, like, 100 times already," Bay said. "In this one, too, it looked like they were going to rip our throats out again. So, yeah, it was nice to finish with a win."
Much else led to it ...
Phil Dumatrait pitched 5 2/3 quality innings -- one run and five hits -- and remained in the game even after a Theriot liner caught him just above the right kneecap in the sixth.
"Got lucky," Dumatrait said. "But it felt great to pitch like that."
He loaded the bases in that inning, but Franquelis Osoria bailed him out by fanning Mark DeRosa on three pitches.
Tyler Yates inherited a 3-1 lead for the eighth, but the Cubs scored three times to take the lead, including Aramis Ramirez's two-run double and Kosuke Fukudome's RBI bouncer through the middle.
Still, the Pirates, now 17-0 when leading after seven innings, kept that record unblemished by tying in the ninth.
Mientkiewicz was summoned as a pinch-hitter, and Chicago closer Kerry Wood hit him with a pitch. Nady, given a rare day out of the starting lineup because of minor leg issues, was the next pinch-hitter, and he singled. Sanchez advanced the runners with a bunt, and Rivas lined a sacrifice fly to make it 4-4.
Capps had entered in the ninth and he would keep the Cubs off the board in the 10th and 11th.
Grabow, described by Russell as "already stretched out" because he had pitched in three of the previous five games, found a way out of jams in his first two innings: In the 12th, Ronny Paulino erased Theriot's leadoff single by catching him trying to steal. And, in the 13th, which Grabow opened ominously with two five-pitch walks, Mientkiewicz and Rivas perfectly executed a wheel play on Blanco's bunt try to get the lead runner at third.
"It's going to go unnoticed, but what Grabow and Capps did for us ... that's unheard of for two late-inning guys," Bay said.
"We had some help," Capps said. "But yeah, you don't expect to see us out there each going three, plus each of us getting an at-bat."
Russell, not prone to being overly effusive, sounded as satisfied with this outcome as any since becoming manager.
"It was outstanding," he said. "Guys were really into it, even in the dugout, picking each other up and pushing each other. I can't say enough about the way this team is not quitting, constantly putting pressure on the other team."
Someone from the other side viewed it similarly.
"We definitely don't see them on the schedule and think we're going to win, by any means,'' the Cubs' Theriot said. "We've been fortunate, I think, to get some victories against them lately, but they always play us close, always play us tough."
First published on May 25, 2008 at 12:00 am
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