The Pittsburgh Pirates remarkable season ended in St. Louis on Wednesday. Once they lost the 4th game at home 2-1, the structural disadvantage of being the Wild Card team made the 5th game a very tough climb. The Cardinals were able to use their ace pitcher twice in 5 games, and Adam Wainwright won both. The Pirates could use their ace only once, because they had to use him to win the Wild Card game with the Reds. And as division winners the Cards had home field for the final game.
Still, three of their starting pitchers pitched valiantly, including the losing pitchers of the last two games. Pedro Alvarez hit 3 home runs in the 5 games, and together with the wild card game became the first player in major league history with RBIs in all of his first six playoff games. Andrew McCutchen had a scorching post-season--though he was the potential winning run for the series when he popped out to end the 4th game.
But the Bucs pushed a perennial championship team to the limit, and became a national story in the process. Most of all they made baseball fun again in Pittsburgh. The beautiful PNG Park is a great place to enjoy a baseball game, but such a great baseball park is made for fans hanging on every pitch and at-bat with a winning team. Pittsburgh has that now.
This story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes something else that is making the Pirates a Pittsburgh favorite--tickets to games are relatively affordable and available, in contrast to tickets for the Steelers and Penguins. (That great photo above--taken outside PNC Park where fans gathered to cheer their Pirates and watch the 5th game on a jumbotron-- also comes from this Post-Gazette story.) See you next year.
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