August 17, 2015
NEW YORK — A look at the week ahead on the site …
Monday: I’m headed home, but I’ll take your Five Qs at 5 today. Josh Yohe has Good Dudes, as well as Pirates-Diamondbacks from PNC Park. Neal Coolong has Steelers in Latrobe. Dave DiCello drives us through the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
Tuesday: Neal will have Five Qs, but the Steelers will be off. Matt Gajtka has Pirates-Diamondbacks.
Aramis Ramirez launches a two-run double in the eighth inning, part of a 4-for-5, three-RBI Sunday. -- GETTY
August 16, 2015
NEW YORK — First-place Dodgers?
Swept a week ago at PNC Park.
First-place Mets?
Swept Sunday at Citi Field, by way of an 8-1 annihilation. Season sweep, too. All six.
The Cardinals?
Eh, let’s talk some more about how the Pirates manhandle most everyone else, OK?
“This is the game of baseball. This is how you play it,” Sean Rodriguez, one of the clubhouse leaders, was saying afterward. “It’s about battling through bad situations, pushing, pushing, pushing, and then pushing some more even after you’re successful. That’s what this team is. That’s what you’re seeing right now.”
Starling Marte slides into third with a third-inning triple Sunday. -- GETTY
August 16, 2015
NEW YORK — Looking ahead to first pitch …
Game: Pirates (68-46) vs. New York Mets (63-54), 1:10 p.m., Citi Field
Pitchers: LHP Jeff Locke (6-7, 4.43) vs. RHP Matt Harvey (11-7, 2.61)
TV, radio: Root Sports (local), TBS (national), 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday | Multimedia | Media notes
Chris Stewart congratulates Mark Melancon on his 35th consecutive save after the 14th inning Saturday. -- GETTY
August 16, 2015
NEW YORK — “Remember when we were 0-6 in these things?”
That was Francisco Cervelli, primary author of the Pirates’ 5-3 14-inning victory over the Mets late Saturday night at Citi Field. His leadoff double set the stage for Chris Stewart and Sean Rodriguez to drop matching RBI singles into center.
And yeah, who doesn’t remember that 0-6 start in extra innings?
Probably the same healthy number of folks aware that, with this extra-extra affair, the Pirates now have won seven in a row, including both games in this series.
“I love it. I do,” Cervelli said. “When you go deep into a game, you have to battle. You have to give everything you have. It shows a lot about who you are.”
Since May 6, Andrew McCutchen is batting .329 with 16 home runs, 62 RBIs and 53 runs. -- GETTY
August 15, 2015
NEW YORK — On the night of May 6, standing at his stall at PNC Park, the face of baseball in Pittsburgh was as flustered as I’ve ever seen.
“I’m sick and tired of going 0-for-freaking-4,” Andrew McCutchen fumed as more and more reporters crowded around to hear what would become a 20-minute no-holds-barred public self-evisceration. “I know I’m better than that. I’m getting paid what I’m getting paid because of the way I should be playing. Right now I’m not doing what I should be doing for the money I’m making. … It’s under mediocre right now. It’s bad.”
Sure was. But it also was the end.
August 15, 2015
NEW YORK — Looking ahead to first pitch …
Game: Pirates (67-46) vs. New York Mets (63-53), 7:10 p.m., Citi Field
Pitchers: RHP Charlie Morton (7-4, 4.48) vs. LHP Jon Niese (7-9, 3.46)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday | Multimedia | Media notes
Gregory Polanco lashes the game-winning single in the 10th inning Friday night. -- GETTY
August 15, 2015
NEW YORK — The Pirates’ 3-2 victory over the Mets on this steamy Friday night at Citi Field finished in the 10th inning, thanks to more clutch from Gregory Polanco and what’s maybe the eleventy-billionth save in a row for Mark Melancon.
Take a course in Sports Writing 101, and you learn early to start at the end. So there. I did.
But part of what makes baseball beautiful when it’s played well, especially by both sides, is that it’s more akin to molecular movement than one or two seismic moments.
And the Pirates — go ahead, sky-write it — played really well.
For the first time in maybe a month, they put together all the pieces. It wasn’t the bats bailing out the arms, or vice versa. It wasn’t the bats and the arms having to bail out the gloves.
“It was just a good, solid game for us,” Chris Stewart was saying as the last man out of the visiting clubhouse. “Go ahead and write that down: Good, solid game.”
August 15, 2015
NEW YORK — Our Anna Webb is now really our Anna Webb.
Please join us in congratulating her on being promoted to full-time social media director for our site, just two months after she joined us in that capacity on a part-time basis. She’ll continue to forge and coordinate connections for us on all kinds of platforms, primarily our rapidly growing new Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to the site.
If you haven’t followed both, every little like, share, RT, fave … all of it helps.
Anyway, in addition to those duties, we’ll bring back the Anna’s Web feature as an intensive, interactive feature that will be Tumblr-based but linked out here. I’ve seen the early mockups, and it’s very cool. Expect to see it with the Steelers’ opener at New England.
Chris Stewart, the Pirates' backup catcher, is one of many tireless workers on the team. -- GETTY
August 14, 2015
NEW YORK — Greetings from the place they seriously call Flushing.
Durka: My boss says he has no sympathy for baseball players when they need a day off. He doesn’t think three hours a day is that grueling. What’s your perspective?
DK: Ha! Perfect question on a day like this. Really.
Hey, welcome, newcomer! You've got 300 feet to pick a lane and switch across three! -- DAVE DiCELLO
August 17, 2015
DiCello: World’s ‘only city with an entrance’
38by Dejan Kovacevic • Photos • DiCello
NEW YORK — For this week’s gallery, befitting my own setting at the time this is written, we’ll quote the New York Times’ legendary line about Pittsburgh that it’s the world’s ‘only city with an entrance.’
Sometimes it takes an outsider to appreciate what you’ve got.
Except, of course, with our Dave DiCello. Click or tap any image to enlarge:
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