Game 93: Pirates 12 Cardinals 11

...

What do you say about a win like that? It's pretty rare that I'm rendered speechless by a baseball game, but it happened tonight. I've written and erased several paragraphs already.

Every sport has it's own unique features and quirks. Baseball's biggest quirk is that it's a team sport that lacks a clock. Fall behind by a large margin late in the game in football or basketball or hockey, and you're forced to come back against both the other team and the clock. In baseball, the clock's not there. If you don't make outs, you keep scoring. Because of that, a team that has two hits and is down 9-3 going into the bottom of the seventh isn't necessarily out of the game like they might be in another sport.

And so the comeback started. A single by Jose Bautista to make it 9-4. Huh. The Cardinals took it right back in the eight. A two-run homer by Jason Bay to make it 10-6. Clutch, but still, big deficit. Then Nate McLouth continued his week-long obliteration of doubt that he belongs on the All-Star team with a three run homer in the bottom of the ninth. 10-9. That's a game worth watching. Luis Rivas, single. Ryan Doumit, single. Jason Bay, doubl pla.... wait! NO! RIVAS SCORED! TIE GAME! Denny Bautista pitching. Home run, Glaus. Well, take a game like this this far and you might as well keep watching, even if Raul Chavez, Jose Bautista, and Jason Michaels are up. Chavez, single. That's a start. Bautista, pop-out. Michaels or Wilson has to get on to get Nate back up. Michaels, home run. Let that register for a second.

Michaels ... home run. Maybe it'll take another second.

MICHAELS! HOME RUN!

Sometimes, being a Pirate fan is hard. When you're watching Yoslan Herrera and Franquellis Osoria and Tyler Yates and TJ Beam and Sean Burnett scuffle like crazy on the mound and you realize that there's a good chance that none of them would pitch for any other major league team, it's easy to wonder why you're still watching. Every once in a while, though, we get a reminder. Savor it.