Fireworks at Forbes

The Surprising Pirates are 4-0

Reds at Pirates

I never would have guessed that the 1949 Pittsburgh Pirates would wind up winning 4 straight in this replay. It’s been that kind of replay so far.

Early Comeback

Cincinnati opened the scoring early. Danny Litwhiler started it off with this one-out first inning shot:

The Reds added a second in the top of the 3rd.

In the 4th, however, Pittsburgh came roaring back, scoring two runs quickly and setting things up for Pete Castiglione:

That was all for Reds starter Johnny Vander Meer, who was far removed from his no-hit exploits of 1938.

Ralph Kiner added on two more in the bottom of the 5th:

The Pirates now had a 6-2 lead after that shot, and I thought this game was as good as over.

Comeback

Cincinnati started a comeback in the top of the 8th. Rip Sewell was rolling through the Cincinnati lineup for a while, but allowed two runners with nobody out. The next batter was Jimmy Bloodworth:

And it was 6-5, just like that.

I decided to bring in Vic Lombardi to pitch and to try to put out the fire. He got the Pirates out of the 8th, but ran into trouble in the 9th.

Cincinnati had one on with two out in the top of the 9th when Ted Kluszewski stepped up to the plate. Lombardi wound up walking him, and I could feel my stomach turning inside of me.

Johnny Wyrostek was the next batter, and Cincinnati’s last hope, with both the tying and winning runs on base:

I suppose walking Kluszewski wasn’t all that bad in the end.