Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Rob Mackowiak runs into a group of happy teammates after hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Pirates to a victory in the first of last night's doubleheader at PNC Park. Click photo for larger image. More Pirates Coverage: Pirates Report: 5/29/04 Collier: Pirates big losers in Mondesi mess Simon returns to first Mondesi reaches agreement with Angels

In a doubleheader that saw a major-league record with three hit batters in a single inning (the first by a Chicago Cubs pitcher in 106 years), four relievers work in both games, 14 pitchers and 26 position players get on the field, it was all a prelude to a Mack-daddy of a performance.

In the first game, the new daddy hit a granny to win it in the ninth inning.

In the second, he hit the game-tying home run, again in the ninth.

"I mean, it was an amazing day," said a disbelieving Rob Mackowiak, who bopped a walk-off, grand slam for a 9-5 Pirates victory barely nine hours after his wife, Jennifer, gave birth to their firstborn, Garrett Matthew.

Eight-pounds, 5-ounce boy around 11:15 a.m.

Nine-to-5 victory over his hometown Chicago Cubs by 8:24 p.m.

Then, in the second game, he bopped a two-run homer, his 10th of the season, to send into extra innings a game won by Craig Wilson with a 10th-inning homer, his 11th of the season, for a 5-4 sweep of the Cubs.

It was the first time since 1967 that a doubleheader was won by walkoff homers.

The two victories gave the Pirates a 22-22 record, their deepest venture into a season with a .500 mark since August 1999.

"A hell of a day," said Mackowiak, from Oak Lawn, Ill. "It's a lonnng day, but a good day. I can't explain it. Just one of those days, I guess. My lucky day."

In the locker stall next door, Wilson sat amazed: "Good friend has a kid. Goes deep twice in a night. Two walk-off homer victories. Pretty good night.

"Some of us are going to be talking to the doctor to see if we can have kids now, too."

First, the baby's day out. Jennifer Mackowiak's labor wasn't due to be induced until Tuesday, but the couple awoke at 7 a.m. yesterday so she could go to the hospital for an amniocentesis test. The diagnostic procedure showed a lack of fluid in the sac surrounding the fetus.

"The next thing you know, the baby's coming out," the father said.

A Caesarean section was done, and Garrett Matthew -- not to be confused with the Gary Matthews who coaches the Cubs or the Gary Matthews Jr. who used to play for the Pirates -- entered the world.

The utility infielder reported to PNC Park around 4 p.m., barely one hour before gametime, and started at third. He appeared a tad overwhelmed at the plate, striking out twice and hitting a groundout and flyout in his other two at-bats.

Then, after 912 at-bats and 34 homers in his four-year career in the majors, he produced the most dramatic kind possible.

A first son and a first grand slam -- off a Cubs closer, Joe Borowski, who had converted his previous 22 consecutive saves opportunities.

"That," said Mackowiak, 27, after talking by telephone to a sobbing Jennifer, who watched it all from her hospital bed, "tops it off right there."

Not so fast.

In the nightcap, Mackowiak came up again in the ninth with the game on the line. LaTroy Hawkins, trying to close out the 4-2 Chicago lead (after pitching an inning in the first game, similar to second-game loser Francis Beltran and the Pirates' Brian Meadows and Salomon Torres), gave up the first-pitch homer to Mackowiak -- a two-run shot that tied the game, 4-4,. It also marked the 500th homer at PNC Park. Incredibly, he hit the homer into the same right-center field seats as the one three hours earlier. It also gave him six RBIs on a wild night in front of 24,657 PNC Park patrons, many of them Cubs fans.

"I didn't see it," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said of the second homer. "I was looking at my scorecard."

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Tike Redman slides past the tag of Cubs' catcher Paul Bako in the 5th inning of Game 1. Click photo for larger image.

Wilson, on the first pitch of the 10th, presented the Pirates with the triumph that brought them back to .500 for the first time since May 4, when they were 12-12.

"I like this team a lot," McClendon said of a crew that has won 10 of its past 15 games. "I like what they're doing right now. To win two emotional games like we did is outstanding. Pretty nice day."

First baseman Randall Simon, on his first day back from a rehabilitation assignment for a strained left hamstring, went 2 for 4 in the first game and scored a run, but flew out as a pinch hitter in the nightcap.

To set the scene for Mackowiak in the first game, the action all began with Butler's Matt Clement. He mowed down the Pirates through the first four innings, striking out five and throwing 36 strikes in his 48 pitches, including three of his four fourth-inning pitches.

Clement somehow came undone in the fifth , when he tied a dubious major-league distinction by plunking three batters -- the 21st time overall it happened in major-league history and first by a Cubs pitcher since Walter Thornton, May 8, 1898.

He threw a wild pitch behind Kip Wells' head to score one run and ultimately yielded three more for a 4-1 Pirates lead.

Former Pirates starter Jimmy Anderson, looking svelte after reportedly losing 30 pounds and arriving yesterday from Class AAA Iowa, relieved Clement and promptly struck out Mackowiak to end the big Pirates inning.

In the bottom of the ninth came Mackowiak's grand stage.

Tike Redman tripled to jump-start the proceedings. Abraham Nunez, on a 2-2 pitch, blooped a single over a drawn-in infield to drive in Redman and tie the game at 5-5. He advanced to third on Jason Kendall's single off the glove of shortstop Rey Ordonez. After Daryle Ward was intentionally walked and Wilson struck out on four pitches, Mackowiak strode to the plate. He let out a large exhale.

"It was amazing, the focus in his eyes," McClendon marveled later.

On a 2-1 pitch from Borowski -- 8 for 8 in save opportunities this season -- Mackowiak hit hisslam to right-center field. He was mobbed at home plate by his teammates.

As for Mack the batter, Mac the manager said after the second game: "To hit the game-winning homer and come back and hit the game-tying homer. . . , I'm sure he'll cherish it forever."