Opening Day Reminiscing – 2007

The Pirates have won five straight Opening Day baseball games. They will try to extend that streak to six as they host the Phillies on Thursday.

For now we are heading back to where the streak began. April 2nd, 2007 in Houston, Texas.

The Pirates came in to the season with some hope of a winning season as they handed Zach Duke the baseball to get things rolling against the Astros. He was opposed by Roy Oswalt. Chris Duffy was the first batter of the season and he drew a walk to get things going. Oswalt got three quick outs after that to end the top of the first with no damage done. Zach Duke got two pop outs and a groundout to have a one-two-three bottom of the first inning.

Both pitchers were pretty good all game long. Nobody scored until the bottom of the 5th, when Luke Scott homered for the Astros, scoring Morgan Ensberg and giving the ‘Stros a two to zero lead. Duke stayed in the game and pitched scoreless 6th and 7th innings giving him a solid quality start to begin his year.

The Pirates looked completely dead on offense all game long, but Nate McLouth finally got the Bucs on the board with a solo home run in the 8th off of Roy Oswalt. Jack Wilson reached base with two outs on an infield single and Oswalt’s day was over. Dan Wheeler relieved him and got the final out of the 8th inning and the Pirates headed to the 9th down two to one.

Brad Lidge came on to face the four-five-six batters of the Pirate order. He got Adam LaRoche to strike out looking and Ronny Paulino to ground out to shortstop and things looked bleak for the Pirates. However Xavier Nady stepped up and hit a huge two out home run to tie the ball game up.

The Pirates got a scoreless bottom of the 9th from Matt Capps which gave Jason Bay the opportunity to put his team on top for good with a two run home run scoring Jack Wilson in the top of the 10th. Solomon Torres came on and picked up a save with a one-two-three bottom of the 10th and the Pirates were 1-0 to start the 2007 season.