[Nick Soulis]

Series #66
1907 Pittsburgh Pirates vs 1998 Florida Marlins


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SERIES 266 — GAME 1
SHEFFIELD'S GHOST HAUNTS EXPOSITION PARK — MARLINS STEAL GAME ONE IN TEN

Florida 1998 Marlins 5
Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 2 (10 innings)

The dead ball faithful packed into Exposition Park on a cool October afternoon expecting Fred Clarke's machine to roll. Instead they watched Jesús Sánchez throw the game of his life, Gary Sheffield break it open with one savage swing in the tenth, and the 1998 Florida Marlins walk out of Pittsburgh with a stunning road victory and a one-nothing series lead.
For nine innings this game belonged to the pitchers. Sánchez, the twenty-three year old right-hander who spent most of 1998 simply surviving on a broken roster, was magnificent — seven innings of five-hit ball, surrendering only an unearned run in the third when Fred Clarke doubled and scored on an Ed Abbaticchio single, and a sixth inning tally when George Gibson doubled home a run. He induced thirteen ground balls, stranded runners at every turn, and left with a one-run lead and a game score of sixty-four that would have looked extraordinary on any staff in any era. Howie Camnitz matched him with seven innings of his own, giving up nine hits but escaping repeated damage, before Deacon Phillippe took over for extra innings and ultimately could not hold the line. In the tenth, with two outs and the bases loaded, Gary Sheffield — the ghost of the championship winter, the man they traded away — stood in against Phillippe and drove a bases-clearing double to left that emptied the bases and silenced Exposition Park. Sheffield finished three for six with three RBI, the defining performance of the afternoon. Matt Mantei closed the door in the bottom of the tenth without incident. Mike Redmond was quietly outstanding behind the plate, going four for five with a double and an RBI, while Honus Wagner managed just one hit in five at bats — a single and a stolen base, but not the Wagner that Pittsburgh needed on this afternoon. Tommy Leach went hitless in five trips. The Pirates left eight men on base and stranded five in scoring position with two outs, a failure of situational hitting that Fred Clarke will not soon forgive.

Key Performers

Gary Sheffield (FLA) — 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; bases-clearing double in 10th inning the decisive blow
Mike Redmond (FLA) — 4-5, 2B, RBI; quietly superb behind the plate and at it
Jesús Sánchez (FLA) — 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; game score 64, Player of the Game
Vic Darensbourg (FLA) — 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, W(1-0); held the Pirates scoreless through the eighth and ninth
Howie Camnitz (PIT) — 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K; competitive but could not match Sánchez's efficiency
Ed Abbaticchio (PIT) — 2-5, RBI; one of the few Pirates to deliver with men on base
Deacon Phillippe (PIT) — 3.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; L(0-1); could not escape the tenth


Series: Florida leads 1-0
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SERIES 266 — GAME 2
Exposition Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
OJALA SILENCES THE DEADBALL MACHINE — MARLINS ESCAPE PITTSBURGH WITH TWO TO NONE STRANGLEHOLD

Florida 1998 Marlins 2
Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 1

If Game One was a gut punch, Game Two was a slow suffocation. Kirt Ojala walked into Exposition Park on a cold rainy Wednesday in October 1907 and threw eight innings of quiet, methodical, maddening brilliance against one of the deadball era's finest lineups, and the 1998 Florida Marlins escaped Pittsburgh with a two to one victory and a commanding two games to none series lead. The Pirates out-hit Florida ten to six. They had Vic Willis on the mound throwing the game of his life. None of it mattered.
Willis was extraordinary — eight and two thirds innings, six hits, one earned run, a game score of sixty-five — and he lost. That is the particular cruelty of what happened at Exposition Park today. The Pirates put ten men on base, stranded eight of them, and watched three baserunners get thrown out trying to steal. Clarke himself was caught. Leach was caught. Nealon was caught. The aggressive baserunning that defines this Pittsburgh club became its undoing against a Marlins defense that executed three double plays and threw out runners with sharp efficiency. Honus Wagner, the greatest player alive, grounded into two double plays and finished the afternoon hitless in four at bats. Through two games he is batting .111 with no RBI. The silence around that number is deafening.
Ojala's gem was built on craftiness rather than dominance — he threw just a hundred and six pitches across eight innings, worked both sides of the plate, and trusted his fielders behind him. Craig Counsell provided the first Florida run with a triple in the seventh, and Édgar Rentería delivered the killing blow in the ninth with a run-scoring groundout that made it two to one. Matt Mantei closed the door in the ninth for his second save of the series. The Pirates now must win four of the next five games, beginning Friday at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

Key Performers

Kirt Ojala (FLA) — 8.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; W(1-0); Player of the Game
Matt Mantei (FLA) — 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, SV(2); two saves in two games
Craig Counsell (FLA) — 1-4, 3B, run scored; delivered the go-ahead hit
Édgar Rentería (FLA) — 1-5, RBI; run-scoring groundout in the ninth the decisive blow
Vic Willis (PIT) — 8.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K; L(0-1); magnificent and unrewarded
Ed Abbaticchio (PIT) — 2-4; one of the few Pirates to consistently put the ball in play

Series: 1998 Florida leads 2-0
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SERIES 266 — GAME 3
MADDOX SILENCES MIAMI — TWENTY YEAR OLD THROWS COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT TO KEEP PIRATES ALIVE

Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 5
Florida 1998 Marlins 0

He was twenty years old, on the road, facing the reigning World Series MVP, with his team's tournament life hanging by a thread. Nick Maddox did not care about any of it. In one of the most dominant individual performances Series 266 has seen, the young Pittsburgh right-hander threw nine complete innings of shutout baseball at Sun Life Stadium, scattering two hits, striking out eight, and willing the 1907 Pirates back into this series with a five to nothing victory that silenced nineteen thousand Miami faithful and sent the series to Game Four with Pittsburgh very much alive.
Maddox was not overpowering in the conventional sense — he threw a hundred and thirty-six pitches, walked five, and had to navigate trouble repeatedly. But he never broke. In the fifth inning Édgar Rentería doubled with two outs and Maddox retired the next batter without allowing a run. In the eighth, with the game delayed sixty-four minutes by rain and the momentum of the entire afternoon hanging in the Miami air, Maddox walked back to that mound and continued as if nothing had happened. Nine innings. Two hits. Zero runs. Game score of eighty-six. It was a performance that belonged in a different conversation entirely from where this Pittsburgh club stood forty-eight hours ago.
The Pirates offense awakened against Liván Hernández in ways that suggested the World Series MVP was finally human after all. Joe Nealon doubled in the fifth to break the scoreless tie and start a two-run frame. Fred Clarke launched a solo home run to left in the seventh — the first home run of this series — and Otis Clymer, inserted into the lineup in right field, went two for five with a stolen base and an RBI that gave Clarke's club the breathing room Maddox needed. George Gibson doubled twice. Tommy Leach doubled. The Pirates scored five runs and looked, for the first time in this series, like the team that won ninety-one games in the National League. A sixty-four minute rain delay in the eighth inning could not dampen what Fred Clarke had built on this afternoon.

Key Performers

Nick Maddox (PIT) — 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 8 K; W(1-0); complete game shutout; game score 86; Player of the Game
Fred Clarke (PIT) — 2-3, HR, 2 BB, 2 R; player-manager delivered the biggest hit of the series
Otis Clymer (PIT) — 2-5, RBI, SB; inserted into the lineup and delivered immediately
George Gibson (PIT) — 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; quietly outstanding behind the plate and at it
Liván Hernández (FLA) — 7.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 3 K; L(0-1); the World Series MVP finally touched
Honus Wagner (PIT) — 1-5, SB; still searching for his series but the Pirates won without him


Series: 1998 Florida leads 2-1
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SERIES 266 — GAME 4
Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida

Florida 1998 Marlins 3
Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 2 (10 innings)

For the second time in this series the Florida Marlins sent the Pittsburgh Pirates home with a walk-off defeat in extra innings, and this time it was thirty-nine year old Jim Eisenreich — a veteran journeyman playing out the final chapter of a career defined by perseverance — who delivered the killing blow. With one out in the bottom of the tenth and Deacon Phillippe on the mound for the fourth time this series, Eisenreich lined a run-scoring single to left that sent Sun Life Stadium into pandemonium and pushed Florida to a three games to one series lead. The Pirates now must win Game Five tomorrow in Miami just to stay alive, and then sweep both games back at Exposition Park to advance. The margin for error is gone.

The game itself was a mirror of the series — tight, grinding, and ultimately decided by the finest of margins. Jesús Sánchez was outstanding again through five innings, giving up one run and keeping Pittsburgh's offense in check through a sixty-three minute rain delay in the third that tested everyone's patience. Donn Pall took over and threw four innings of his own before surrendering the tying run in the ninth on a George Gibson RBI single that sent the game to extras. Matt Mantei struck out two in a perfect tenth to earn the win. For Pittsburgh, Howie Camnitz lasted just four innings before Clarke burned through Sam Leever, Lefty Leifield, and finally Phillippe in a bullpen effort that ultimately came up one run short. Tommy Leach tripled in the second. Joe Nealon went two for four with an RBI. Honus Wagner managed one hit in four at bats — a single — and his series average sits at .167. Fred Clarke has done everything a manager can do in this series. His best player has not been his best player, and it has cost Pittsburgh dearly.

Key Performers

Jim Eisenreich (FLA) — 1-1, RBI; walk-off single in the tenth inning; 39 years old and delivering when it mattered most
Jesús Sánchez (FLA) — 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; Player of the Game; two strong starts in this series
Matt Mantei (FLA) — 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K; W(1-0); three saves and a win, utterly dominant in this series
Tommy Leach (PIT) — 1-4, 3B, R; showed life at the top of the order
Joe Nealon (PIT) — 2-4, RBI; quietly one of Pittsburgh's most consistent performers
Deacon Phillippe (PIT) — L(0-2); 1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R; could not escape the tenth for the second time this series


Series: 1998 Florida leads 3-1
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SERIES 266 — GAME 5
Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida
WAGNER AWAKENS, WILLIS DELIVERS — PIRATES FORCE THE SERIES HOME WITH SIX TO THREE VICTORY IN MIAMI

Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 6
Florida 1998 Marlins 3

Vic Willis came to Miami with his team's season in his hands and delivered one of the great performances of this series — nine complete innings, three runs allowed, one earned, a hundred and thirty-four pitches thrown with the quiet authority of a man who has done this before and will do it again. The 1907 Pittsburgh Pirates won six to three at Sun Life Stadium, and the series that appeared to be slipping away entirely now returns to Exposition Park in Pittsburgh tied at three games to two. The Marlins had their chance to close it out in Miami. They did not. Now they must go back to a wooden ballpark on the Allegheny where the crowd will be waiting.

The Pirates struck early and often against Kirt Ojala, who had been so brilliant in Game Two but could not find that version of himself on this afternoon. George Gibson lifted a sacrifice fly in the first to draw first blood, and in the second Ed Abbaticchio cleared the bases with a two-run double that gave Pittsburgh a four nothing lead and sent a charge through the visiting dugout that did not dissipate for nine innings. Alan Storke, quietly one of the most consistent performers in this series, drove in two more with a triple that pushed the lead to six. And then there was Honus Wagner — finally, unmistakably, irrefutably Honus Wagner — going three for five with an RBI and two stolen bases, looking every bit like the player who hit three fifty this season. Stan Musial said last night that Wagner would not go quietly. He was right. Willis matched his offense with iron-willed pitching, stranding eleven Florida baserunners and surrendering just one earned run despite throwing a hundred and thirty-four pitches on a cloudy Miami afternoon. Cliff Floyd had six total bases and drove in two runs in a losing effort, but the Pittsburgh machine was simply too much on this day.

Key Performers

Vic Willis (PIT) — 9.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 K; W(1-1); complete game, Player of the Game
Honus Wagner (PIT) — 3-5, RBI, 2 SB; the great man finally arrived when his team needed him most
Ed Abbaticchio (PIT) — 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; bases-clearing double in the second the turning point of the game
Alan Storke (PIT) — 3-5, 2 RBI; one of Pittsburgh's most consistent performers across this series
Cliff Floyd (FLA) — 3-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI, BB; six total bases in a losing cause
Kirt Ojala (FLA) — L(1-1); 6.0 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 5 ER; could not replicate his Game Two brilliance

Series: 1998 Florida leads 3-2
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SERIES 266 — GAME 6
Exposition Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
MADDOX DOES IT AGAIN — TWENTY YEAR OLD FORCES GAME SEVEN WITH SECOND COMPLETE GAME OF THE SERIES

Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 3
Florida 1998 Marlins 2

Nick Maddox walked back out to that mound at Exposition Park and did it again. Nine innings. Eight hits. Zero earned runs. Two and oh in this series with an ERA of zero point zero zero across eighteen complete innings, and the 1907 Pittsburgh Pirates have forced a Game Seven. The twenty year old from the deadball era has become the defining figure of Series two sixty-six, and tomorrow Vic Willis takes the ball with everything on the line against a Florida club that has now lost three straight and watched a three to one series lead evaporate completely.

The game was tight and tense and decided in the margins. Wagner doubled in the fourth to break the scoreless tie and Clarke doubled him home to make it two nothing in the sixth, a two run frame built on pitching and pressure and the particular brand of manufacturing that defines this Pittsburgh club. Tommy Sheehan added a run-scoring single in the sixth — helped along by a Florida error — that pushed the lead to three and gave Maddox enough to work with. Hernández was not bad. Eight innings, three runs, two earned, a hundred and ten pitches. He simply ran into a twenty year old who was better. Maddox stranded nine Florida baserunners, induced fourteen ground balls, and never once looked like a pitcher who understood the weight of the moment pressing down on him. In the eighth Todd Dunwoody singled home a run and Cliff Floyd added a sacrifice fly to make it a one run game and give Exposition Park a genuine scare, but Maddox closed the ninth without incident and the crowd exhaled as one. Five Pittsburgh errors on the afternoon — a number that would have lost most games — could not undo what Maddox was doing on the mound. He simply would not allow it.

Key Performers

Nick Maddox (PIT) — 9.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; W(2-0); 0.00 ERA in this series across 18 innings; Player of the Game
Fred Clarke (PIT) — 2-4, 2B, RBI; the player-manager delivered the decisive blow in the sixth
Honus Wagner (PIT) — 1-4, 2B, SB; doubled to start the scoring in the fourth
Liván Hernández (FLA) — L(0-2); 8.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; competitive but beaten by a better performance
Tommy Sheehan (PIT) — 1-3, RBI; run-scoring single in the sixth the insurance Pittsburgh needed
Cliff Floyd (FLA) — 1-3, SF, RBI; kept Florida close with a sacrifice fly in the eighth

Series: Tied 3-3
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SERIES 266 — GAME 7
Exposition Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh 1907 Pirates 4
Florida 1998 Marlins 2

They came back from three games to one. They won three straight. And on a cold, partly cloudy October afternoon at Exposition Park, the 1907 Pittsburgh Pirates completed one of the great series comebacks in Field of Dreams Tournament history, defeating the 1998 Florida Marlins four to two in Game Seven and advancing from Series two sixty-six. Vic Willis threw nine complete innings for the second time in three days, Honus Wagner went two for five with an RBI, Fred Clarke went three for five, Ed Abbaticchio drove in the decisive runs with a bases-clearing performance in the early innings, and sixteen thousand Pittsburgh faithful watched their club do something that looked impossible when Florida led three games to one and needed just one more win in Miami.The Pirates wasted no time.

They scored in the first, broke the game open in the second with two more runs, and added another in the third to stake Willis to a four nothing lead before Florida had fully settled into the afternoon. Abbaticchio was everywhere — three hits, three RBI across the series finale — and Clarke went three for five in the biggest game of this series, looking every bit the player-manager who has been the tactical and emotional heart of this Pittsburgh club throughout. Jesús Sánchez could not find his Game One self on this afternoon, lasting just five innings, giving up eleven hits and four runs before Leyland went to the bullpen in the sixth. Matt Mantei — untouchable all series — finally took the mound in a game that was already decided and threw a scoreless inning, the only clean frame Florida managed. Vic Willis gave the crowd a scare in the sixth when Rentería doubled home a run and in the eighth when Cliff Floyd singled home another, but Willis never wavered, grinding through a hundred and twenty-six pitches with the stubborn competence of a man who has seen everything baseball can throw at him. When the final out was recorded Exposition Park came apart.The series MVP is Nick Maddox — two wins, eighteen innings, zero earned runs, the performance that defined this series and kept Pittsburgh alive when nothing else could.

Key Performers
Vic Willis (PIT) — 9.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; W(2-1); complete game; Player of the Game
Ed Abbaticchio (PIT) — 3-5, RBI; three hits in the decisive game; one of Pittsburgh's most consistent performers
Fred Clarke (PIT) — 3-5; the player-manager went out and played his best game when it mattered most
Honus Wagner (PIT) — 2-5, RBI; finished the series the way he started it — with his reputation restored
Jesús Sánchez (FLA) — L(0-1); 5.0 IP, 11 H, 4 R, 3 ER; could not replicate his earlier series brilliance
Cliff Floyd (FLA) — 1-4, RBI; finished with six RBI in the series, the best on either club

1907 Pittsburgh Pirates Win Series 4 Games To 3

Series MVP:

(2-0, 18.0 scoreless innings, 10 K, 6 BB, 0.89 WHP, .175 OBA)