The Pirates and Giants made history in the oddest way as an overturned replay gave the Bucs their fifth walk-off of the season in a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night. With two outs in the ninth, Starling Marte hit a Tim Hudson fastball off of the Clemente wall for an apparent triple. The relay throw went to third, but went past third basemen Pablo Sandoval. Marte then took off towards the plate and slid head-first at catcher Buster Posey. Posey applied the tag and home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott ... Read More
Archives for May 2014
Reports: Gregory Polanco Turns Down Long-Term Deal With Pirates
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Pirates top prospect Gregory Polanco turned down a seven-year, $25 million dollar offer with three club options from the Pirates earlier this season. Source: Pirates offered prospect Gregory Polanco a contract for up to 10 years. He rejected and remains at AAA. News: http://t.co/OvjBQxicdw — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 6, 2014 The deal would have bought out Polanco's arbitration years and allowed the Pirates to call him up much ... Read More
Biggest Steelers Draft Misses of the Past 20 Years
Since the early 1970’s, the Pittsburgh Steelers have crafted a reputation as a team that builds championship rosters mainly through the NFL Draft. Even the advent of free agency in the NFL didn’t force the six-time Super Bowl champions from changing their philosophy of building the “Steeler Way”. Pittsburgh has continually drafted and developed Pro Bowl-caliber players on both sides of the ball, and even in the modern-era NFL, the Steelers have won two Lombardi trophies with teams predominantly ... Read More
Pirates Gameday 5/6: Lineups, Hurdle Discusses Morton’s “Big Innings”
Good afternoon from PNC Park where the Pirates (12-20) look to rebound against the Giants (21-11) after a tough 11-10 loss last night where the Bucs blew a 8-2 lead late in the game. Charlie Morton (0-4, 4.21 ERA) will look to end his streak of games with "big innings" against Tim Hudson (4-1, 2.17 ERA). Leading Off Clint Hurdle has confirmed that Wandy Rodriguez will make a rehab start at AA Altoona tonight. He is scheduled to go 6 innings or 90 pitches, whichever comes first. Hurdle also ... Read More
Pirates Blow 8-2 Lead, Lose in Extras 11-10
A Jared Hughes throwing error on Jean Machi's sacrifice bunt allowed the Giants (21-11) to get by the Pirates (12-20) 11-10 in 13 after trailing 8-2 heading into the sixth inning. With the Giants leading 2-0 in the third after a shaky start by Pirates starter Jeff Locke, Josh Harrison, Neil Walker (RBI) and Andrew McCutchen all singled. Pedro Alvarez then came up and looked to have walked on four pitches, but home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi called ball four a strike. Alvarez took the next pitch he ... Read More
Pens blank Rangers to take 2-1 series lead
For the second straight night the Penguins played a strong defensive game and for the second straight night they defeated the New York Rangers, taking a 2-1 series lead in the process. Marc-Andre Fleury posted his second consecutive shutout, stopping all 35 shots by New York. Fleury, who is usually a lightning rod of criticism, has stopped 73 of New York's last 74 shots. The Rangers, once again, went scoreless on the power play (0-5). New York is now 0-13 in this series and 0 for their ... Read More
Pirates Gameday 5/5: Lineups, DL Update, Hurdle Discusses Giants Starter
Good afternoon from PNC Park where today the Pirates (12-19) open a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants (20-11). Jeff Locke will make his 2014 Pirates debut against Yusmeiro Petit (2-1, 2.61 ERA), who is starting in place of injured starter Matt Cain. To make room for Locke on the 25-man roster, the Pirates have optioned Casey Sadler to AAA Indianapolis where he should resume duties in their starting rotation. Sadler threw four innings of work allowing no runs on two hits while ... Read More
Penguin of the Week: Marc-Andre Fleury
Despite what some fans may thing, Marc-Andre Fleury can fuel the Pittsburgh Penguins to success. And he did so Sunday night to even the series at one game apiece with the New York Rangers. The ninth-year goalkeeper stopped 22 Rangers' shots in the 3-0 victory to earn his franchise-record seventh playoff shutout. The shutout was also his first of the playoffs this season but his sixth overall of the 2013-14 season. The win was the second in the past week for the Pens, with one loss sandwiched ... Read More
Post-free agency needs for Steelers
Thanks to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, football fans have had an extra month this year to impatiently wait for the NFL Draft. For fans of the back-to-back 8-8 record Pittsburgh Steelers, it seems as if the regular season ended eons ago. No fan base in the league is more ready to move onto the 2014 season than Steeler Nation, still trying to wipe away the bitter taste of missing the postseason for two years straight. However, something interesting happened between that ... Read More
Pens rebound with 3-0 shutout over Rangers
After dropping the first game of the series on Friday night in overtime, a game in which they were largely outplayed, the Penguins returned with a vengeance in Game 2 on Sunday night, blanking the New York Rangers 3-0. While Game 2 is never a "must-win" situation in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Penguins played as if there was no tomorrow, out shooting and out-chancing the Rangers by a wide margin. Game 3 is tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. New York started out with three ... Read More