[Baseball] Pirates Beat Yankees for 1st Time in 48 Years

The Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday beat the New York Yankees for the first time in almost half a century.

The Pirates won 12-5 in the first of three interleague games this season on 19 hits, including homers from Jose Bautista and Ryan Doumit. Pittsburgh’s last victory over New York was in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.

Major League Baseball introduced interleague games in 1997, and the Pirates had been the only team winless against the Yankees since then. The Pirates took on the Yankees three times each in 2005 and 2007 but lost all six contests.

Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski had the honor of throwing the first ball. He hit a game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth to give the Pirates the 1960 World Series title. Pittsburgh also honored his presence by scoring in every inning except the second and sixth.

Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner allowed seven runs on 10 hits in five innings, losing his fifth of the season. PNC Park, which opened in 2001, also saw its third-largest crowd in history for the game.

In other action, Choo Shin-soo of the Cleveland Indians went hitless in his sixth straight game. As designated batter against the host San Francisco Giants, he went 0-3 with a walk. Choo popped out in the second, grounded out in the fourth, and struck out in the seventh.

He advanced to first on a walk when his team was behind 3-2, but Kelly Shoppach’s strikeout ended the game.

Choo’s batting average slid from 0.275 to 0.259.

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