Shades of 1960
PITTSBURGH — For one night, it was 1960 all over again for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Jose Bautista and Ryan Doumit homered and the Pirates turned back the clock nearly a half-century, beating the New York Yankees 12-5 Tuesday night for their first victory against them since Bill Mazeroski's historic homer decided the '60 World Series.
The Pirates had been the only team in the majors to not beat the Yankees in a regular-season game, getting outscored 49-19 while losing six in a row against them in 2005 and 2007. Until Tuesday, the Yankees hadn't played a game that counted in Pittsburgh since 1960.
"It was perfect," Jason Bay said. "We got a lot of hits, scored a lot of runs, had a great crowd. That was a blast."
Hall of Famer Mazeroski threw out the ceremonial first pitch to commemorate the only homer to end a World Series Game 7, and the Pirates took it from there by opening a 7-1 lead in the fifth. They finished with 19 hits, nine for extra bases.
And the Pirates' first homer against the Yankees in Pittsburgh since No. 9 Mazeroski's famous shot? Bautista, who wears No. 19, hit a two-run drive in the fourth — coincidentally, Bautista's ninth homer.
Playing before only their second home sellout this season, the Pirates enjoyed the same kind of setting the Yankees experience nightly in Yankee Stadium.
"There was no special pixie dust for this one," manager John Russell said. "But it was a great night. The fans were into it, they had a lot of fun and the players fed off that."
Bay, who doubled twice, hasn't seen such PNC Park so lively since the 2006 All-Star Game. Jack Wilson, who has played all eight seasons in the ballpark, thinks it may have been the best crowd he's seen there.
"It was a different atmosphere," Bay said. "That doesn't happen here a lot and it was pretty neat to play in."
Ripping a page from history — the Pirates scored six runs in the final two innings to rally and win 10-9 in that '60 Game 7 — they scored twice in the first against Darrell Rasner (4-5). Rasner lost his fifth in six decisions by giving up seven runs in five innings.
Nate McLouth doubled and scored on Freddy Sanchez's bloop single to start the first. Sanchez moved to second on the play when new left fielder Justin Christian fumbled the ball for an error, and Adam LaRoche added a two-out RBI single.Doumit, back from a five-game layoff with a possible concussion, hit his 10th homer in the fifth and LaRoche followed with only his third career triple before scoring on Rasner's second wild pitch of the game, making it 7-1."I need to forget this start," Rasner said.The Yankees are 120-84 in interleague play to the Pirates' major league-worst 61-100, yet still lost their third in four games against a below-.500 NL Central team. They dropped two of the three against the Reds last weekend."We couldn't get that one big inning, and they were hitting literally from the first pitch of the game," said Derek Jeter, pointing to the Yankees' 2-for-11 performance with runners in scoring position.Pirates left-hander Tom Gorzelanny (6-6) walked five and gave up six hits despite throwing only 47 of 99 pitches for strikes in six innings, but still won for the second time in six starts.The Yankees, who had won eight of 10 and 13 of 18, were without offensive catalyst Johnny Damon because of a sore left foot so they called up the 28-year-old Christian, who had two hits and drove in two runs in his first career game."I felt we stunk," manager Joe Girardi said. "It's one thing to lose 2-1 and guys shut you down. We had a lot of opportunities, our defense didn't help us, our hitting with runners in scoring position didn't help us — a lot of factors went into this game, where you get pounded,"Robinson Cano had three hits, including a single in the second that was the Yankees' first hit in Pittsburgh since Mickey Mantle's ninth-inning single in Game 7. Bobby Abreu hit a two-run homer, his ninth, in the ninth.The Pirates, despite being three games below .500 in what could be a 16th consecutive losing season, are 24-16 at home."Every time we seem to have a (big crowd), we end up playing well," Wilson said. "Everybody knows this is a sports town, and they would go crazy if the Pirates were in some sort of race at the end."
• The last time the New York Yankees played in Pittsburgh (1960), prices were 4 cents for a postage stamp, 57 cents for a dozen eggs, 31 cents for a gallon of gas and 49 cents for a gallon of milk.• The salary for a rookie baseball player was $7,000 in 1960. It's now $390,000.• Paid attendance Tuesday night was 38,867 — third-largest crowd in PNC Park history. The ballpark's record crowd is 39,392, for an Aug. 11, 2001 game vs. San Diego.• Pirates left-hander Tom Gorzelanny threw 76 pitches — 42 balls — in the first four innings Tuesday night, walking five and hitting another, but he allowed only one run during that stretch.• Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche hit his third career triple Tuesday and his first since Aug. 30, 2006.• Doug Mientkiewicz, a Yankee last year, played in his 1,000th major league game Tuesday.• The Yankees have finished in first place 45 times in their history, most of any professional sports franchise. The Pirates have finished in first place 15 times.• During the Pirates' current 15-year string of losing seasons, the Yankees finished in first place 11 times.
