The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs in ten innings today, getting a great performance from their pitching staff, along with a huge walk off home run from Neil Walker in the bottom of the tenth inning. Here is a photo recap of the game, with all photos taken by our photographer, David Hague.
Barry Bonds presenting Andrew McCutchen with his MVP award
Jim Leyland presenting Clint Hurdle with the Manager of the Year award
Jack Wilson gives Silver Slugger awards to Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez
The award winners
Your 2014 Pittsburgh Pirates
Francisco Liriano tossed a gem, striking out ten batters in six shutout innings. He’s the third Pirates’ left-hander to strike out ten on Opening Day.
Fittingly, Andrew McCutchen picked up the first hit of the season for the Pirates.
New first baseman Travis Ishikawa had two hits in his debut with the Pirates.
The Shark Tank took over in the seventh inning, and picked up where Liriano left off. Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli each tossed scoreless frames.
The game went to extra innings, which is when Bryan Morris showed off his new two-seam fastball.
Morris gave up a single to Emilio Bonifacio, but picked him off at first base during the next at-bat. Bonifacio was originally ruled safe, but the Pirates made their first challenge of the season, and got the call overturned after the replay showed that Ishikawa tagged Bonifacio before he reached the bag.
The game went to the bottom of the tenth inning, and that’s when hometown hero Neil Walker came through with a walk off home run to win it.
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Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.
Jack Wilson looks like either a secret service agent or a mobster in that suit.
Why wasn’t Dave Parker there to help present the MVP to Cutch? He won it in 1978.
I heard they invited The Cobra but he couldn’t make it. Not sure if that’s true, but I think he’s balling Parkinson’s, so that could certainly be the issue.
Great work David!
Awesome stuff from David. Really captures the essence of the moment