The Pirates finished their 15-game homestand with a 21-5 blowout of Brooklyn. The Bucs piled up 25 hits, including four home runs. Max Carey hit for the cycle, and Kiki Cuyler and Glenn Wright both just missed doing so. The Robins’ first two pitchers, rookie Jesse Petty and veteran Bill Hubbell, each recorded just two outs. Little-known lefty Nelson Greene took one for the team, hanging on for the last six and two-thirds innings while allowing 18 hits and 14 runs.
Babe Adams didn’t have a great start, allowing 13 hits over nine innings, but it hardly mattered and he was able to improve to 3-2. Brooklyn got a run in each of the first three innings, but the Pirates scored 11 total. The Robins’ runs all came on two-out hits: a single by Jack Fournier in the first, a double by Hubbell in the second, and a triple by Eddie Brown in the third.
After Brown’s hit, Adams retired 11 straight. In the seventh, an RBI triple by catcher Charlie Hargreaves followed by a single gave Brooklyn its last two runs.
The Pirates piled up runs throughout the game. Cuyler put them ahead for good, 2-1, with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first. It was his sixth of the year and only his second to leave the park. Later in the inning, Wright tripled in a run and scored on a single by Stuffy McInnis, knocking Petty out.
Hubbell didn’t fare any better. After Pie Traynor drove in a run with one out in the second, Greene came in. He gave up a two-run double to Wright, an RBI single to McInnis and an RBI double to Carey. That left the Pirates up, 9-2. They got two more in the third, both scoring on a wild pitch into the infamous “catcher’s outfield” at Forbes Field.
There wasn’t much letup after that. Wright hit his ninth home run of the season with Cuyler aboard in the fifth. Cuyler pulled off a rare feat in the sixth. With the bases loaded, he drove a ball deep to right-center and got himself an inside-the-park grand slam. It was his seventh home run of the season.
In the seventh, Carey got his own inside-the-park homer with two aboard. It was his second home run of the year. It also gave him a cycle despite the fact that he was retired his first two times up. Clyde Barnhart finished the scoring with a single that drove in Cuyler, who’d tripled.
Carey finished 4-for-6 with four RBIs. Cuyler was 4-for-5 with two home runs, five runs and six RBIs. He came up a double short of a cycle. Wright fell a single short of a cycle, going 3-for-6 with three runs and five RBIs.
The Pirates finished 11-4 on their homestand. With the Giants losing to the Reds, the Bucs are now a game and a half out of first. They open a five-game series in St. Louis after tomorrow’s off-day.