Pirates Top Cubs In 16
ESPN.com news services
A lot of fans around Major League Baseball went home happy -- if not emotionally spent -- on Wednesday. The same cannot be said for visiting teams' closers.
There was a lot of drama on the diamond as five games featured walk-offs wins by the home team:
* Tony Sanchez's first walk-off hit of his career came in the 16th inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates outlasted the Chicago Cubs. The Pirates are the first team to have an extra-inning walk-off hit in each of their first two games in a season since the 2004 Minnesota Twins.
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* Though not in extra innings, the Detroit Tigers also have walk-off wins in each of their first two games this season. On Wednesday, offseason addition Ian Kinsler delivered a game-winning single against the Kansas City Royals. The last time the Tigers delivered in the clutch in back-to-back games to open the season was 1901 -- the first two games of the franchise's history.
* The Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals were scoreless going into the bottom of the ninth when Chris Heisey hit a walk-off single. It was the second walk-off of Heisey's career -- both against the Cardinals.
* A day after Adrian Beltre hit a walk-off single for Texas, the Texas Rangers topped the Phillies on Shin-Soo Choo's first career walk-off walk.
* And not to be outdone, the Chicago White Sox won on a walk-off wild pitch as the Minnesota Twins' Samuel Deduno threw one to the backstop in the bottom of the 11th inning, allowing Leury Garcia to race home with the winning run. It was the first walk-off win for the White Sox via a wild pitch since July 4, 1997.
In all, six different pitchers -- Joe Nathan, Glen Perkins, Jonathan Papelbon, Jason Grilli, Jose Veras and Jim Johnson -- blew a save in the ninth inning or later on Wednesday. That's the first time that's happened since Aug. 14, 2001.
Information from ESPN Stats and Info was used in this report.
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