While just about every story that focuses on the Pirates in the news of late has the word “collapse” somewhere in it, a word that hasn’t been used that often recently will be used in this one.  That word is victory.  Last night the Pirates took it to the Mets, as they came away with a 10-6 victory in New York.

After the first half inning, this game looked to be one where the Pirates could put it in cruise control and get their 76^th victory of the season rather easily, as Pedro Alvarez started off the game with a 3-run homerun.  Along with the 4-0 lead, the Pirates had Wandy on the mound, who has been excellent on the mound of late.  But the Pirates for some reason don’t like having easy wins for some reason.  In the bottom of the 1^st the Mets answered with 3 runs of their own, forcing every Pirate fan watching to utter the phrase, “Here we go again.”

However, for the first time in a long time the Pirates bounced back with the help of Josh Harrison, Garrett Jones, and again Pedro later in the game.  Harrison collected 2 hits and 2 RBI, Jones pounded his 25^th homer of the season and 3 RBI, and Pedro had another RBI (that gives him 85 on the year) in the 5^th to go along with his 30^th homer of the season in the first inning.  To go along with the offensive outburst, Wandy was again solid on the mound as he gave up just the 3 first-inning-runs in his 6 innings of work.

Jeff Locke looks to get his first win of the season and his career tonight as the Pirates and Mets are back at it again tonight at 7:10 in New York.  However there is much more important news “Life after Littlefield” has to share.

Yesterday former Pirates’ shortstop Jack Wilson announced he will be retiring from baseball at the end of this season.  Let that soak in for a second and wipe the tear from your eye.  He spent 9 seasons in Pittsburgh and each and every one was a losing season. He played for 4 managers and 3 general managers while a Pirate and slowly but surely became the fan favorite as the Pirates “traded all of their good players away,” year after year.  While Jack did make the NL All-Star team as a member of the Pirates in 2004, he was known better around the league for making excellent defensive plays throughout his career. He was offered to stay around the Atlanta Braves ball club for the rest of the season, after being released by them on August 31, as they finish up their season in Pittsburgh.  It will be Jack’s first time back in Pittsburgh since being traded at the 2009 trade deadline to the Seattle Mariners.  I feel as if I speak for most fans by saying, thanks for everything you did Jack.