This is a great story of baseball trickery, made better by the history of the managers involved. Jim Tracy used to work for the Pirates, while Hurdle was replaced by Tracy in Colorado, despite having led the Rockies to the World Series 18 months earlier. In any Pirates-Rockies game this year, you can expect Pittsburgh to empty their arsenal of hidden ball tricks, suicide squeezes, and those plays where the pitcher pretends he’s throwing a pickoff to first but then he wheels and actually throws it to third. All while Clint Hurdle sits in the dugout and mutters, “I’ll show you an in-game strategist, O’Dowd!”
With Josh Rodriguez on first base and Jose Tabata up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the 14th inning and pitcher Garrett Olsen on deck, Jim Tracy was faced with two decision: pitch to Tabata or go after the pitcher with runners on first and second.
Instead, being the wise sage that he is, Clint Hurdle put Andrew McCutchen in the lead off circle, daring Jim Tracy to call his bluff. Tracy then pitched to Tabata who hit the game-winning double high off the Clemente wall.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Asked if the move was a decoy to get the Rockies to think McCutchen was up next … “No, come on, why would we do that,” Hurdle said with a sly chuckle.”
After fourteen innings, I don’t blame anyone for just wanting to get the game over and it’s very possible that after 5 hours and 11 minutes, Jim Tracy might have missed a bit of game strategy.
But know this, the Pirates are now 5-3 and they are even doing crafty, smart things. No, they probably won’t win 82 games this season, but no longer is the greatest threat at PNC Park the health effects from a Primanti Bros sandwich.
