Thursday, April 26, 2007
Jose Bautista slides past Astros catcher Brad Ausmus scoring the Pirates second run in the fourth last night at PNC Park.
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It was the unquestioned highlight of Adam LaRoche's unremarkable start to his Pittsburgh career, the bases-loaded single in the 16th inning that ended the Pirates' 4-3 outlasting of the Houston Astros last night at PNC Park.
And yet ...
Jose Castillo jumps on top of Adam LaRoche after LaRoche delivered the winning hit in the 16th inning to beat the Astros, 4-3.
"In one sense," he allowed with a wry smile afterward, "it was a little disappointing."
No, not because all that hit did for his average was inch it above the Half-Mendoza Line to .106.
And no, not because it was knobbed softly enough that it had a hard time knocking down the first blade of outfield grass.
Rather, it was because LaRoche came oh-so-close to making his Major League Baseball pitching debut.
Turns out that, with John Wasdin the Pirates' last man out of the bullpen, manager Jim Tracy already had made up his mind to use LaRoche next. The only other option might have been Tony Armas, the scheduled pitcher for today, but he was sent home early last night because of the 12:35 p.m. start time today.
"It would have been awesome," LaRoche said. "I would have loved it."
It would not have been entirely fluky: LaRoche, son of former All-Star reliever Dave LaRoche, was a better pitcher than hitter in his high school days in Kansas, and he twice made mound appearances in Atlanta's minor-league system. He even learned the eephus pitch, a golden rarity anymore.
Tracy's view?
"I'll tell you what: He's done some good things down in the bullpen with Colby on occasions," Tracy said, referring to pitching coach Jim Colborn. "But God forbid we'd have gotten to that situation."
They never did.
The Pirates' offense failed to score for 10 consecutive innings with only three hits -- all singles -- in that span, but the alarm clock went off with the fateful 16th.
After one out, Chris Duffy singled off Houston reliever Brian Moehler, stole second and took third on catcher Humberto Quintero's errant throw. But Duffy was nailed in a rundown on Jack Wilson's fielder's choice.
Looked dreadful at the time, but turned out to be no big deal.
Jose Bautista followed with a hit up the middle that moved Wilson to third. And Jason Bay was intentionally walked so that the Astros could face LaRoche.
Hey, why not? LaRoche came to the plate 0 for 4 on the evening, leaving him 0 for 18 at PNC Park since joining the Pirates.
Houston shortstop Adam Everett was shading well behind second base, and LaRoche noticed it. Moehler would throw him the steady diet of low-and-away sinkers he has been seeing -- and not hitting -- all season. And LaRoche was aware of that, too.
"How can you not be?" LaRoche asked.
He took a pitch, then willfully squibbed one of those sinkers right to where Everett would have been. It barely eluded Everett's backhand try to reach the outfield, and Wilson touched home to end the Pirates' longest game since the 18-inning gem they won against the same team at the same venue May 27, 2006.
"I didn't even want to stroke the ball," LaRoche said. "I just wanted to guide it right through that hole, just like a game of pepper."
Jack Wilson makes an attempt to outrun the ball before it goes foul in the first inning against the Astros last night.
However many fans were left -- no more than 200 -- out of the paid crowd of 8,201 cheered and clapped as much as their chilled hands would allow, as the Pirates' players sprinted from the field, dugout and bullpen toward first base to mob LaRoche.
He seemed genuinely moved.
"I've had the feeling all year that they've been pulling for me ... and this shows it," LaRoche said. "It's pretty special right now for me, to be honest with you."
There was much else for the Pirates to like about this one, not the least of which was that it extended a three-game winning streak, raised their overall record to 9-10 and brought a fifth consecutive victory against Houston, first time for that since 1991.
Individually, there was plenty, too.
Zach Duke shrugged off those two awful starts -- 14 runs in just six innings -- by going seven strong and limiting Houston to one run on six hits.
Brad Eldred snapped an 0-for-17 slump with his fifth-inning solo home run -- to the deepest part of PNC -- that put the Pirates ahead, 3-1.
And, after Torres gave up two runs in the ninth to allow the Astros to tie, Shawn Chacon pitched four scoreless innings of relief, and John Wasdin the final two for the victory.
That was part of a staff-wide effort that caused Houston to strand a mind-numbing 18 runners.
"I really feel like everyone did there part in keeping this game going," Chacon said. "Salomon did his job, too. You look at Salomon's outing ... they really didn't hit anything hard."
There is a point there: Two of Houston's four hits that inning did not leave the infield, and a throwing error by second baseman Jose Castillo pushed things along for the Astros. Even the two that did leave the infield, RBI singles by Luke Scott and Craig Biggio, touched infield first.
"I take responsibility. I should always put down the ninth," Torres said. "But ... you saw what happened. Can anything go my way?"
Torres' blown save was his third - tied for most in Major League Baseball -- in nine chances, the sort of ratio that leads to doubts about any closer. But nothing like that was raised by Tracy.
"Nothing was driven in that inning," Tracy said. "Balls got hit and found a way through. Happens to the best of them."
"We're happy to have picked it up for Salomon, and we're just happy in general because it was fun to be part of that," Wasdin said. "You look at our whole staff, look at Ronny Paulino catching 16 innings and imagine how sore he's going to be tomorrow. And Zach ... man, it seems like he pitched yesterday."
Wasdin caught himself, remembering it was after midnight.
"He did pitch yesterday."
(Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.)
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