Monongalia Ballpark played host to its first New York-Penn League Championship game Monday night and Game 1 of the championship series did not disappoint. The West Virginia Black Bears made the most of its stadium's championship debut as fans got free baseball, as well as a 4-3 Black Bears victory. West Virgina, playing their inaugural season in Morgantown, needed 11 innings to get past the Staten Island Yankees in Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series to take a 1-0 series ... Read More
The rise and fall of the doubleheader
The Pittsburgh Pirates will play their first doubleheader of the year today against the Chicago Cubs, their third in as many years. Doubleheaders used to be as synonymous with baseball as hot dog cannons, bobbleheads and the seventh-inning stretch, but have long since faded from the game. The death of the doubleheader is nothing new to baseball, as they have mostly been used to make up a game that was postponed or suspended for generations. Many games get stacked on the same day as opposed to ... Read More
Pirates pregame 9/13: Harrison regaining offensive stride, Morse finds success
The Pittsburgh Pirates will look for another series win in this afternoon's contest against the Milwaukee Brewers. After dropping the first game by a 6-4 score in 13 innings, the Pirates came back to win 6-3 and 10-2. In this afternoon's game, Francisco Liriano will face Taylor Jungmann. Liriano is 6-6 with a 4.26 ERA in 15 career games [14 starts] against the Brewers. He is 0-2 with a 4.85 ERA in two starts this year. In his last start, Liriano got a win against the Cincinnati Reds ... Read More
Farm report: Pirates affiliates go 2-1 on Thursday
With four of the Pirates minor league teams in the playoffs, let's check in on them to see how they did on Thursday. Indianapolis Indians- Triple-A The Indianapolis Indians played host to Game 2 in their opening round Governors’ Cup playoff series in front of 3,706 faithful fans at Victory Field. Taking the mound in Game 2 for the Indians against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders was Vance Worley. Worley only needed 91 pitches to get through eight innings of work against the ... Read More
Opinion: the Pirates can still win the NL Central
Are you really surprised? The Pirates are headed for another season on the back burner of the NL Central; another season headed for a wildcard berth, and another season in which the St. Louis Cardinals give Pirates fans extra gray hairs that they (and I) could seriously live without. Despite playing in the toughest division in baseball, the Pirates would have a multi-game lead over the current leader in four of the five other divisions. Let that just sink in for a moment. A team cursed by ... Read More
Then versus now: The significance of win No. 82
The Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated their 7-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday with their usual line of high-fives. There was no fanfare, no parade planned or champagne popping. It was just another win. Much like their 1-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on September 9, 2013 was just another win, as was their 3-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on September 18, 2014. All three of the aforementioned wins secured the Pirates a winning season. Did you know they did? Did you care? If you ... Read More
Pirates release 2016 schedule
The fireworks won't take long to get going in 2016 for the Pirates, as they'll kick off their season at home against their bitter rival St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, April 4. It will be the first time since 2007 that the Pirates will host the Cardinals for the Home Opener. It's one of the marquee match ups for the Pirates, as the team released their 2016 regular season schedule. The Pirates will get interleague action in early, as after a quick road trip after the home opener to ... Read More
Players traded from Pirates at deadline have yet to show much
You have to give to get. And in baseball, sometimes what a team gives up is worth more than what they got in return. But that has not been the case for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. Prior to the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline, the Pirates acquired Aramis Ramirez, Joakim Soria, J.A. Happ, Joe Blanton and Michael Morse. Given up were prospects Yhonathan Barrios, Adrian Sampson and JaCoby Jones, veteran Jose Tabata and cash. It is easy to declare which team wins a certain trade ... Read More
Pirates have odd history in Miller Park
“Oh, that’s not fair!” That is what a friend of mine who is a Chicago Cubs fan said Monday when he found out the Pittsburgh Pirates were about to start a series in Milwaukee. Little did he realize he should have rejoiced at that news. Despite losing 7-5 to the Brewers on Tuesday, the Pirates still own a 4.5 game lead over the Cubs for the top Wild Card. But considering that Miller Park is a house of horrors for the Pirates, it would not be a surprise if the Cubs inch a game or two ... Read More
Pirates find real catch with Cervelli and Stewart combo
It is said that catchers are the generals of the baseball diamond and over the past few seasons this has been extraordinarily true for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs have had their fair share of hits and misses in player projects, but recently it appears the Bucs have been getting a lot of hits when it comes to the catcher position — literally. Remember the days of pulling your hair out because Rod Barajas couldn’t square a ball up any better than he could throw a runner out? Or watching ... Read More