Pedro Alvarez slammed his twenty third homer in the 19th inning against the St. Louis Cardinals

Pedro Alvarez hit his 23rd bomb of the 2012 season, it was his biggest

The Pittsburgh Pirates motto to the 2012 season was FINISH.  It looks like it has started.

The Bucs had a memorable 19 inning game last season against the Atlanta Braves.  That game has been talked about like it was a World Series, but perhaps Pedro Alvarez and the Bucs made it all disappear with one swing.

574 pitches later, the Pirates had defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, and with it a lot of bad memories from that fateful night when Jerry Meals said ‘He’s safe.’

Keli Alvarez. Keli Alvarez. yeh, Keli Alvarez....awesome

Alvarez has crushed four bombs against St. Louis this season.  He has killed the Red Birds with a slugging percentage of nearly .650, and has plated sixteen teammates while carrying his big stick against Cardinals pitchers.

Heh, whatever it is about the St. Louis Cardinals, Pedro loves it and it’s a big reason Petey has an OPS of almost .900 against teams with winning records.  Here is the video if you want to watch it about one hundred more times.

The reaction of his wife Keli – who was in the stands with many of the Pirates players wives – was so entertaining to watch.  The camera showed her leaning forward watching it.. and then when it cleared the fence in deep right center field, she nearly jumped out of the park.

Yeah, Pirates fans know the feeling.

[Big H/T to Mikey and ForbestoFederal for sending out the pics]

Reviewing the most read Pittsburgh Pirates stories from RumBunter in 2011

The hardest thing to do is look back on a Pittsburgh Pirates season.  (more…)