The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
August 29, 2012
PITTSBURGH — Janice Martell directed an early-morning visitor Tuesday to a popular site at the hilly Jefferson Memorial Cemetery here: the grave of Honus Wagner, a shortstop who won eight National League batting titles and, in 1909, led the Pirates to their first World Series championship.
When Martell strolled through the grounds in April, she found that the grave marker for Wagner and his wife, Bessie, was sinking — a problem that she said maintenance workers soon fixed. “Markers will sink over time,” said Martell, a secretary in the cemetery’s office.
Wagner’s former team is also fighting to stay above ground in a season that had been so promising but lately threatened to unravel. The Pirates’ three-game series this week against the St. Louis Cardinals was a crucial test as to whether they could remain postseason contenders into September or would retreat into the irrelevancy that has marked their existence for the last two decades.
With a 22-23 record since the All-Star break, Pittsburgh had dropped to third place in the National League Central, nine games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds and a game behind the Cardinals for a wild-card spot after the Pirates took two of the series’s three games.
Asked to handicap the series against St. Louis, Steve Blass, a broadcaster and the Pirates’ 1971 World Series hero, did not hesitate. “It’s more critical for the Pirates than the Cardinals,” he said.
It was, since it is still not clear if the Pirates’ success this year is really believable. And Pirates fans themselves were sending mixed signals on whether they thought a team that has not even had a winning record for two decades was going to hang in there.
The Pirates had sold out their series against the Milwaukee Brewers last weekend, and over all, attendance is up by about 100,000 fans this season. But the first two games against the Cardinals drew just over 17,000 fans apiece, a measly total for what is close enough to pennant race baseball.
Excuses were quickly offered, with some noting that the school year had begun on Monday.
But an elevator operator at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park scoffed at that explanation. “St. Louis would be drawing lots more fans for these games,” he said.
As they faced off, the clubs appeared headed in opposite directions. With a 48-37 record at the All-Star break, Pittsburgh led its division by one game, over Cincinnati, and led the Cardinals by two and a half. Then came the skid, somewhat reminiscent of what happened in July 2011, when the Pirates lost 12 of 13 games to fall out of contention. They eventually finished under .500 — again.
St. Louis, meanwhile, arrived in Pittsburgh having won 7 of 10 and seeming primed for another playoff push. A late hot streak earned the Cardinals a playoff slot on the last day of the 2011 season and propelled them to the franchise’s 11th World Series title.
That kind of success is a foreign concept to many Pittsburgh fans, especially younger ones.
“I think they’ll get to .500, but I don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs,” Jenna Foster, a young skeptic at 14, said of the Pirates as she strolled with some friends through the stadium concourse during Tuesday’s game.
Still, her T-shirt displayed the team’s latest inspiration: the Z sign formed by sideways hands whose thumbs touch. Catcher Rod Barajas and shortstop Clint Barmes started the fad, inspired by the character Zoltan in the film “Dude, Where’s My Car?”
Later, Foster craned her neck to see the Pirates star Andrew McCutchen pulling into second base with a double; he flashed a Z sign, and the crowd cheered. The fans roared louder a moment later, when Pedro Alvarez homered to left to stretch Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-0.
McCutchen is 25, and with a .344 batting average in his fourth season, he is a candidate for the National League’s Most Valuable Player award. Alvarez is also 25, and with 26 home runs this season, he is making an impact with the Pirates in his third season.
“These young kids — Clint makes them believe they belong in the big leagues and can compete against anybody,” Manny Sanguillen, a catcher on the 1971 and 1979 championship Pirates teams, said Monday of Manager Clint Hurdle.
To Sanguillen, the team’s futility streak “is over,” regardless of how September plays out.
“It’s now 2012,” he said. “You look back, and you’re frozen. You have to look ahead.”
As he watched Monday’s game, his old team scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. But St. Louis came right back with four runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings to beat Pittsburgh’s ace, A. J. Burnett, 4-3. The Pirates fell another game out in the wild-card chase.
But on Tuesday night, Pittsburgh rebounded, roughing up St. Louis starter Jake Westbrook for 11 hits and 7 runs in a 9-0 blowout.
Before Tuesday’s game, several Cardinals pondered the Pirates’ fortunes and whether the team might just fade away in the final weeks of the season. Some felt the Pirates would not.
“They have guys over there who can lead by example,” pitcher Adam Wainwright said, citing the World Series experience of Burnett and Hurdle.
Third baseman David Freese, who was the 2011 World Series most valuable player, said, “With what we did last year, it shows that anything’s possible.”
Sitting at his locker nearby, catcher Yadier Molina said he put less weight on the series with Pittsburgh than others did.
“You have to take care of business and not worry about the other side,” Molina said while polishing his mitt. Asked about momentum, which the Pirates have been searching for, Molina turned and looked up. His right thigh sported a pronounced red welt.
“I believe in playing the game the right way; if you do, positive things will happen to you,” he said. “Momentum? I don’t know. Every night you have to come ready to play.”
That night, Molina’s words held true, but for his opponents. Hurdle called the Pirates’ lopsided win the team’s best all-around game this season. Hurdle mentioned starter James McDonald’s “top-shelf” pitching performance in yielding just two hits in seven innings and Alvarez’s four hits in five at-bats, including two home runs.
And then there was Josh Harrison’s violent crash into Molina while attempting unsuccessfully to score on a second-inning single. Molina left the game with a sore back, neck and shoulder.
“I hope Molina’s not hurt,” Hurdle told reporters of the collision, which he called “an old-fashioned baseball play,” one he said could give the Pirates a spark.
But beyond that, Hurdle was not making any promises. “This,” Hurdle said as he left a postgame briefing, “was the most important game we’ve played all day.”
On Wednesday night, Hurdle’s Pirates again beat St. Louis, 5-0, behind starter Wandy Rodriguez, who allowed three hits in six innings, and Alvarez, who hit a three-run homer and a double. The win gave the Pirates the 15-game season series with the Cardinals, 8-7, and drew them closer in the playoff hunt.
With just two more victories in 2012, the Pirates will equal last season’s total of 72. Hurdle no doubt plans for his team to win many more important games.
Maybe even some in October.
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