I love late-inning dramatics and today’s Pirates game had just enough. The Pirates and Mets were tied at two apiece after 8 1/2 innings of solid pitching. In the bottom of the 9th Jason Bay struck out and Xavier Nady grounded out, leaving Joe Randa at the plate. He drew a walk from Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman, bringing Ronnie Paulino to the plate. After Paulino’s first swing the Mets announcers started talking about the problems with Paulino’s swing – how he opens up his front shoulder too quickly. Paulino responded to this criticism by drilling a line drive off the wall in deep left-center, bringing in the winning run. His hit sealed the series win for the Pirates and prevented the Mets from clinching the NL East pennant for a second straight night. You can say that I’m mean, but I loved watching the game and seeing all the disappointed Mets fans in the stands at PNC Park. Welcome to Pittsburgh.
The Pirates’ victory tonight leaves them 62-87 (.416) on the season and 32-27 (.542) since the All-Star Break. Since they have 87 losses and only 13 more games to play this season, they need only one more win between now and October 1st to avoid the dreaded 100 loss season. I think they can pull it off. The series win against the Mets marks the 10th series win (out of 18) the Pirates have had since the All-Star Break, including series sweeps of the Giants, Cubs, and Cardinals.
In other news, one of my fantasy players, Chone Figgins, hit for the cycle tonight. This comes only days after the Rangers’ Gary Matthews Jr. hit for the natural cycle in Thursday’s game against the Tigers.