Paulino, Pirates delay Mets' party again, 3-2
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There was, indeed, a celebration last night at PNC Park.
A wild one, too, with players mobbing each other on the field, fireworks erupting over the river, and a capacity crowd of 37,623 whooping it up.
The New York Mets?
Not yet.
Their magic number to clinch the East Division remained at one after Ronny Paulino's two-out, RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Pirates to a 3-2 victory that, for a second night in a row, kept the Mets' champagne on ice.
"We played with a lot of poise," manager Jim Tracy said. "We are playing baseball right now like we were not capable of playing it early in the season."
The numbers strongly support that: The Pirates have won 12 of 18 and are 32-27 since the All-Star break.
And that 100-loss season that seemed inevitable? That possibility could expire this afternoon with win No. 63 if the Pirates and Zach Duke complete a three-game sweep of the best team in Major League Baseball.
This one came in an unusually intense setting for late-September baseball in Pittsburgh. The crowd again included a large contingent from New York, and the result was a vocal tug-of-war. By the late innings, with the score 2-2, fans seemed to hang on every pitch.
"Outstanding environment," Joe Randa called it.
Randa was summoned as a pinch-hitter with two outs in the ninth and drew a five-pitch walk off Mets reliever Aaron Heilman.
Paulino stepped to the plate, carrying a .350 average with runners in scoring position and, as he tells it, no shortage of confidence.
"I like being up there with the game like that," he said.
Keith Srakocic, Associated PressLeft fielder Jason Bay can't run down a double by New York's Carlos Delgado in the first inning last night at PNC Park.
Click photo for larger image.
Matchup: Pirates (Zach Duke 9-13) vs. Mets (John Maine 5-4), 1:35 p.m.
Where: PNC Park
Radio: KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network.
Pirates Notebook: Paulino's exceptional average takes back seat
Paul Meyer's Baseball Notebook: Period. Exclamation point! The End
Paul Meyer's Baseball Rankings: 9/10/06
LAST GAME: Sanchez went 1 for 4 against the Mets.
Miguel Cabrera, Marlins.340
Freddy Sanchez,Pirates.340
Matt Holliday,Rockies.333
NEXT GAME
He fouled off one pitch, then drilled the next -- a flat fastball -- to the base of the North Side Notch, the deepest part of the park. There was no play at the plate on Randa.
The Pirates' dugout emptied, the players rushing Paulino at second.
"It's a great feeling," Paulino said.
"You see this guy wanting to be involved in those situations," Tracy said. "We really have ourselves a special piece with this player."
Paulino was not the sole contributor, though, nor the primary one.
As Tracy pointed out, "We pitched great all night long."
That began with Tom Gorzelanny, back for the first time since Aug. 15 after elbow tendinitis knocked him out of the rotation.
Aware he would be limited to about 60 pitches, he spread 71 over four quiet innings while holding New York to a run and four hits. His command was decent -- two walks, one intentional -- and his velocity stayed steady throughout.
"He was crisp," Tracy said.
Gorzelanny had no complaint about the elbow, either, though a more telling sign will be how he feels today.
New York scored in the first on Carlos Delgado's two-out RBI double that would have been caught had left fielder Jason Bay not hesitated before retreating.
Bay responded in style.
In the second, he made a sliding -- but futile -- attempt to catch a popup near the line and slammed his left knee into the padded wall. He was down for a moment, bringing silence from the crowd, but soon retook his spot.
In the bottom of that inning, he drove a fastball from Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez the other way for his 34th home run and second in as many nights.
In the fourth, he put the Pirates ahead, 2-1, by leading off with a shot through the left side, stealing second and coming around on Ryan Doumit's single.
Bay's teammates sounded most impressed with his try for the popup.
"He's our team leader," Doumit said. "To show that effort going for that ball, with what our record is, somebody might wonder why he'd do that. ... Well, it means a lot to us."
Shane Youman followed Gorzelanny and limited New York to one cheesy run over three innings. In the fifth with a man at second, Delgado's soft liner skipped off Doumit's glove and rolled into right field, where Xavier Nady muffed the pickup.
Damaso Marte and Matt Capps kept the Mets scoreless the next two innings.
Friday, many of the Pirates' players sounded significantly less than enthused about the importance of keeping the Mets from partying here.
Last night, that seemed to shift.
"We don't want them to clinch it at our place," Doumit said. "Not on our field."
First Published September 17, 2006 12:00 am
