October 7, 2013
Philip G. Pavely | Tribune-Review
Pirates fans await team introductions Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013, prior to Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Cardinals at PNC Park.
PITTSBURGH • The Cardinals quickly left PNC Park’s first-base dugout Sunday night a bit bewildered. The Pittsburgh Pirates bounced up the stairs to their clubhouse now favorites.
Able to overcome two deficits, the National League Central champs couldn’t overcome a third that sprouted against two rookie arms during a telling two-run eighth inning.
Math is first-grade simple when up or down 2-1 in a best-of-five division series. Trailing, the Cardinals require their 43rd and 44th postseason wins in the last decade. The Pirates merely need their third postseason win in a generation.
“We’ll just get ready to play,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “Where it takes us, it will take us. We’re focused on playing clean baseball. We’re trying to play smart. We will always play hard.”
For the last two games they’ve played better.
The Pirates aren’t just a wild card. They are a narrative one win removed from capturing their first postseason series since 1979. They beat the Baltimore Orioles in that year’s World Series. Cal Ripken debuted for the O’s two years later.
The Pirates have made their point: There are two teams in this series, not just the one with 11 world championships, an incredibly balanced roster and a cavalcade of rookie achievers. The other is no October gate-crasher but a team that shed two decades of futility for a sense of belonging. Yes, the 97-win Cardinals are officially in deep, perhaps deeper than two years ago against the Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers. They turn today to a third rookie, Michael Wacha, to extend their season in his 10th major-league start.
“We’ve been in this position before and gotten it done,” said Cardinals infielder Daniel Descalso. “It’s simple. It comes down to winning two straight.”
The Pirates haven’t just reached the postseason. They have resuscitated a baseball town given up for dead.
Another loss and the Cardinals will know the sting shared by all but three teams that have carved the game’s best record since 1995.
One more loss and they’ll learn the other side of the coin that is playoff randomness. A team that set the known record for clutch hitting has 11 hits in its last two games, only one with runners in scoring position.
As a touched-by-fate wild card, the Cardinals overcame a similar predicament two years ago. This time, however, they must recover against a team, its momentum and its flag-waving, pierogi-munching fan base. The latter two may be more intimidating than today’s Game 4 starter, Charlie Morton.
There is something powerful when a team threatens what the Pirates can accomplish this afternoon by taking down the Cardinals for a ninth time in 12 games at PNC. Atlanta enjoyed the sensation in 1991. Tampa Bay lived it in 2008. Both franchises have remained relevant since.
“We’ve worked extremely well all season,” Hurdle reminded of a team that finished with more wins than the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers, “so we’re earning our way. You have to continue to earn your way here, especially late in the postseason. Nothing is given to you.”
The Cardinals rallied twice to tie Sunday but each time the Pirates retook the lead within their next five outs. The Cardinals lost for a fourth time this year in a Francisco Liriano start but this time were actually beaten during a three-inning bullpen exchange. The Pirates managed three hits with runners in scoring position, the Cardinals only Carlos Beltran’s two-run single.
Third baseman Pedro Alvarez again did what he does to the Cardinals when he turned around typically fail-safe rookie Kevin Siegrist for an eighth-inning RBI single through second base.
Known for leading the NL in home runs and striking out by the gross, Alvarez batted .180 against lefthanders this season. Siegrist held lefthanded bats to a .118 average.
“In the few times I’ve faced him they’ve been very tough at-bats,” Alvarez described.
So, naturally, Alvarez finds a hole with a pitch Siegrist said he would throw again. The Pirates scored again on catcher Russell Martin’s single to lead – and win – by a 5-3 count.
The deciding runs were charged to excitable rookie Carlos Martinez, who created the situation by surrendering a double to Andrew McCutchen, benefiting from the MVP candidate’s failed attempt to move up on a ground ball, then walking Marlon Byrd, who had driven in the game’s first two runs. Siegrist then entered to allow multiple hits for only the second time in 47 appearances.
“That’s the matchup we wanted,” said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, “and today they won.”
College juniors never had thrilled to a winning Pirates season. The Steelers and Penguins have passed the town’s loyalties back and forth while the Pirates have gone through general managers like yellow crying towels. Weekday bleachers seats could regularly be had for two bucks.
Sunday afternoon Ed Blanks and his wife Dara arrived from nearby Jefferson Hills. Their bleacher seats were for $28 face. Ed shelled out $180 apiece to “a friend” before laying out another $20 to park. He wasn’t fazed by standing in a deep line at something called Chickie’s & Pete’s Famous Crabfries. For $9.75 one could purchase an order of fries that include no crab. An extra side of cheese goes for $2.75.
Leaving Chickie’s, one could grab a 25-ounce Bud Light for $10.50. “Biggest beer in the ball park,” bragged the young entrepreneur selling the stuff. (Less than 100 feet away a 24-ouncer went for $10.)
The Blanks pled guilty to being part of the speeding Bucs bandwagon. Sunday was his third game this season, her second. This time, cost meant the kids stayed home.
“Two years ago they fell out of it in July and last year they fell out in August,” Dara accurately remembered about the Bucs’ ‘11 and ‘12 fades. “They probably won’t make it back next year but this is something everyone wants to be part of.”
Several years ago the Pirates could have leased their concourses to a bowling alley on game day, but Sunday it was 15 wide before the first pitch. A three-block party raged on Federal Street beyond left field.
Cardinal fans stand out here like drops of blood among a “blackout.” Sunday’s announced crowd of 40,489 was the largest in PNC’s 13-year history. Cardinal Nation was granted precious few visas.
It is difficult for St. Louis folks to grasp the depths the Pirates plumbed. Since their last playoff experience in 1993 the Bucs have drawn more than 2 million three times. In those 21 seasons they’ve attracted at least 1 million fewer fans than the Cardinals 17 times. In five seasons the Pirates managed less than half the Redbirds’ attendance. Their average deficit during the span is 1.334 million fans – or the rough equivalent of San Diego’s population. Our team has drawn 3 million to Baseball Heaven in 15 of the last 16 seasons; the Pirates will high-five all winter after pulling in 2.256 million this summer.
A flag farm Sunday, every section of PNC waved multiple Jolly Rogers. Weaned on the Steelers’ Terrible Towels, they waved the Pirates’ all-black variations. Standing in the visitors’ dugout was akin to watching a jet take off. Across the field the Pirates were standing on the right side of something special.
Derrick Goold covers the Cardinals and Major League Baseball for The Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @dgoold or on Facebook at Facebook.com/BirdLandPD
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