I submitted this as well. Go Pirates!

This was a pretty awesome series: The Pirates went into St. Louis a game ahead of the World Champion Cardinals in the wild card race. They proceeded to win Friday night 2-1, with the Pirate runs scoring on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Saturday the Cardinals take a 5-3 lead into the ninth; the Pirates load the bases with no one out, but can score only once and lose 5-4. With the Cards having a chance to tie them in the wild card, the Pirates pull out Sunday's rubber game in 19 innings.

I love baseball.

Great series, but would have liked to see the a little more offense from my team (2 more runs in the first game, and 1 more run in the first nine innings of the second game) I'm not greedy. :) Although if we were going to lose two out of three, would have liked to see more of the McCutchen show.

You'll recall that last year the Pirates' catastrophic collapse began with a 19-inning loss. Clearly, then, this is the yin to 2011's yang and this 19-inning win marks the start of their red-hot march to 95 wins and the NL Central championship.

the start of their red-hot march to 95 wins and the NL Central championship.

Do they have 28 games left against the Cubs and Astros?

I'm sort of amazed that someone whose last name was "Browning" chose to name their male son "Barret" (I also wonder if he has a sister named Elizabeth), let alone that he's a baseball player and gave up the winning run in this game.

Do they have 28 games left against the Cubs and Astros?

The Pirates have 41 games remaining. They have 6 with the Reds, 3 with the Cards, and 3 with the Braves. Six of those games are the last week of the season. So, of the 35 games until then, the Pirates play 29 against teams way under .500. They have a steady diet of Brewers, Cubs, Astros, Padres.

You'll recall that last year the Pirates' catastrophic collapse began with a 19-inning loss. Clearly, then, this is the yin to 2011's yang and this 19-inning win marks the start of their red-hot march to 95 wins and the NL Central championship.

Or it could just be that playing a 19 inning game late in the season has a bad affect on all teams. As I recall the Braves also has a lousy end to the season.

Go Giants.

Or it could just be that playing a 19 inning game late in the season has a bad affect on all teams. As I recall the Braves also has a lousy end to the season.

It wasn't really that late in the season. It was at the start of the Pirates' collapse, but it's hard to see how it negatively affected the Braves. They went 21-11 over their next 32 games, then hit the skids.

WANDY!!

WANDY!!

WANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!