Pittsburgh Pirates BDR: The Night Chicago Died

"I heard my mama cry I heard her pray the night Chicago died Brother what a night it really was Brother what a fight it really was, glory be"

Those lyrics are from the song “The Night Chicago Died,” performed by the seminal rock band Paper Lace.

Psyche! Paper Lace isn’t a seminal rock band. I don’t even know who the hell they are. However, The Night Chicago Died has stuck in my head since childhood, from the first time I heard it amongst the ebbing and flowing static on my clock radio during one of those restless late nights when I ran out of sheep, so I began counting the blades of grass under their hooves.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are coming off a three-game sweep of the Phillies in Pittsburgh. The home team scored a grand total of six runs in the series, four of those runs scored in the second game. In other words, the Bucs were damn lucky to win all three games. In other, other words, the Bucs were damn lucky to have faced a team with less offense then the Icelandic army.

The starting pitching specifically was stellar. Gerrit Cole wasn’t his usual dominant self, but still managed the victory in the high-scoring 4-3 second game. Jeff Locke is going to hang around as the fifth starter for at least another start. And Batman was filthy.

Good teams win games when a major component of their game is lacking. The Pirates are a good team.

Now comes a brief shortened inter-league home series versus the Chicago White Sox.

Inter-league play still seems newfangled to me. I’m one of those fans who thinks baseball should always be played the way it was played during my formative childhood years. The American League champs should play the National League champs during the World Series, not the regular season. The All-Star Game is akin to a picnic wiffleball game, but less competitive. It should have no impact on the WS (Suggestion: During the National Anthem, time the word lyric — “braaave” — to footage of Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse on the Titan-Tron.) And finally, the only real American cities are the cities that hosted a major league baseball team prior to 1993.

Game 1:

Bucs 11, Sox 0

The crown of the Gulf Building blazes gold when the Pirates score. The energy bill in that place must be sky-high after Monday night. Apparently, the Pirates withheld offense against the lowly Phillies so they could unload on a troupe of twerps from the Junior Circuit.

The shutout was the largest in Pirates’ history since the 1904 World Series.

This game was cooked by time the White Sox activated the bullpen…in the first inning. Sox rookie starter Carlos Rodon, a former first-round selection, could be heard whispering “uncle” before the Pirates lineup could flip over. On the other hand, Francisco Liriano recorded 12 strikeouts in eight scoreless frames.