[ifspuds]

Pirates Escape, Move On To Oakland
by Langford Thomason
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Even the normally unflappable Vic Gorin looked like a kid with a new bicycle under the Christmas tree. The Pirates manager had just guided his team to the most unlikely of comebacks in the National League Championship Series and still couldn't quite believe that it had happened. "Down two games to none, George (Adkison) on the shelf, headed to Atlanta against Cardinan? I'm not even sure I gave us much of a shot. I didn't think these guys could amaze me any more," said Gorin, grinning from ear to ear in the clubhouse after a game five win that saw Melchior Cifuentes club his second game-winning homer of the series and Lynn Willmon gut out three dominating innings, striking out Big Wally Hanham to end the game and cap an unbelievable series.

"I think people underestimated just how important Chucho (Melchior Cifuentes) was to us this year," said Gorin. "Yeah, he hit .187. But when the game was on the line, when we needed a big hit, he dug down and found something extra." Cifuentes's three-run homer in the 5th inning of game five put the Pirates up 9-5, runs they needed when the Braves scored 2 in the top of the 6th. Gorin's assertion is backed up by some surprising numbers. In the late innings, Cifuentes hit .317, and hit much better with runners in scoring position than he did in other situations. "I go up looking for a ball I can do good things with," said the center fielder, who missed the last two months of the season with a bum knee. "Sometimes I get lucky." As dramatic as his game five shot was, it was nothing compared to the game four bomb. With the game tied 2-2 going into the 9th, Cifuentes came up with two down and Eric Wellman and Bash Mahoney at the corners. Facing new pitcher Lance Slaughter, Cifuentes sent a towering fly ball over the fence in right-center to clear the bases.

If there has been one theme this team has played on all season long, it's drama. Time and time again during the regular season, they turned on the late-inning heroics to turn losses into improbable wins. The National League Championship Series was no different. With ace George Adkison nursing a sore back after 3 and two-thirds ineffective game one innings, the rest of the staff turned in some of their best work. Even though he was torched in game two, not even escaping the first inning, Hippo Castillo came back on short rest in game 4 and pitched seven strong innings to earn the win. Levi Sellers matched Atlanta's Joe Cardinan, nearly ten years his junior, pitch for pitch in a nail-biting game three that turned on Bash Mahoney's two-out, two-run 11th inning homer.

"I don't think my heart can handle much more. I'm an old man," said Vic Gorin as the celebration in the clubhouse began to wind down. The 62-year old Gorin isn't about to hang up his cap just yet though. He's got another World Series to manage, the seventh of his illustrious managerial career. And knowing his Pirates squad, they've got even more heart-stoppers in store for him.