PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) It was a perfect day for baseball at PNC Park – the best weather for a Home Opener that I can remember – and 7,749 fans took advantage of this perfect 80-degree day.
Of course, in keeping with their rough 2021 start, even though the Pirates played a much cleaner game it was another imperfect result. The pitchers only walked one Chicago batter but the Cubs hit 3 home runs to beat the beleaguered Buccos , 4-2, their sixth straight defeat.
Nonetheless, despite the 10 men left on base and Pirates batters going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring positon, the "sellout crowd" seemed happy to have baseball back.
Number one, they were nice to Gregory Polanco. Polanco, who lugged a .059 average into the game, was not skewered during the introductions; in fact the fans were mostly supportive and he responded by going 2-for-3. The out was his hardest-hit ball, a line drive to deep center field. He also narrowly missed a home run, doubling off the fence, to go along with a pop fly single.
Polanco says the encouragement helped. "Oy yeah, for sure," he said, "it gives me confidence and that helps going into the box knowing the fans have my back so I'm like 'let's go.'" The Pirates can only hope that carries over to the weekend.
Speaking of encouraging crowds It sounded like half of Mars was sitting in left field whenDavid Bednar came on with a man on second and two outs in the eighth. The loudest cheers of the afternoon, at least next to Ke'Bryan Hayes' pre-game intro. Bednar threw one pitch and gave up a scorching line drive to left but Bryan Reynolds made a diving catch to bail him out.
"It was really special; I really can't put it into words," Bednar said, after he spent about ten minutes taking photos with family and friends down the left field line. "hearing them go crazy in their section was really cool. I'm just happy they could all share it with me."
Bednar's appeal is sure to stretch beyond Mars since his intro song is – yep – Renegade. "It's always been in the back of my mind to use it as a walkout," he acknowledged, "and as I soon as I was traded I was, like,lyou know what? It's automatic."
Ian Happ is another local product and it's his fifth year in the big leagues so Thursday marked the 26th game that Happ has appeared in a game at PNC Park but, still, you'd think the pride of Mount Lebanon get a decent reception in his hometown. But it was mostly crickets when Happ came to the plate in the top of the ninth.
As I mentioned, fans were mostly just happy to be at the ballpark so there wasn't really a whole lot of booing. With Joe Madden no longer managing the Cubs, the loudest jeers were for Jake Arrieta, fans obviously remembering the ill-fate 2015 Wild Card game.
There were two reviews that should have been unnecessary and only delayed the game a minute-and-a-half each time.
First base umpire Will Little ruled Bryan Reynolds safe on a double play ball in the bottom of the first, making him perhaps the only person in PNC Park who thought so. By the time the umps huddled for the review and overturned the safe call, 6 of the Cubs were already in the dugout and Reynolds was waiting for his glove in shallow left field.
The Cubs challenged another call in the fifth when Willson Contreras tried to stretch a 2-out single and was called out at second, Reynolds to Frazier. This call stood and the Pirates lingered closer to the dugout, but, unlike the Cubs had earlier, they stayed on the field until the call was confirmed.
I noticed two new scoreboard games, as always, hosted expertly by Joe Klimchock. One is "Truth or Lie" which featured Colin Moran with 2 real athletic relatives and 1 fake one. The other is "Fast Bucs." It's like Fast Money in Family Feud with a fan and this time Bryan Reynolds; they came up 22 points short.
Both games should catch on. Fans just have to hope the team catches on, sooner rather than later.
