The 2013 National League Wild Card Game was a

play-in game A play-in game ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

's (MLB) 2013 postseason played between the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

's (NL) two

wild card Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

teams, the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

and the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. It was held at

PNC Park PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore (Pittsburgh), North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth location to serve as the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates. Opened during the 2001 Major League Baseb ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, on October 1, 2013. The Pirates won by a 6–2 score and advanced to play the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

in the NL Division Series. The game was televised on TBS, and was also broadcast on

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

. The game marked the first postseason appearance by the Pirates since

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and the Pirates' victory gave the team their first postseason series win since the

1979 World Series The 1979 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1979 season. The 76th edition of the World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates (98–64) and the Am ...

. This was the third postseason appearance for the Reds in four seasons. It was the sixth postseason meeting between the Pirates and Reds (the others being in the

NLCS The National League Championship Series (NLCS) is a Playoff format#Best-of-seven playoff, best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Major League Baseball po ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, and

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

). Pirates manager

Clint Hurdle Clinton Merrick Hurdle (born July 30, 1957) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and manager who currently serves as both the interim bench and hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB). Hurdle played ...

made his first postseason appearance since competing in the

2007 World Series The 2007 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2007 season. The 103rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Colorado Rockies and the American ...

as manager of the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

, while

Dusty Baker Johnnie B "Dusty" Baker Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and Manager (baseball), manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers. D ...

fell to 0–3 in postseason appearances as manager of the Reds, a position from which he was relieved three days after the loss. The loss continued the Reds' postseason win drought, active since the

1995 National League Division Series The 1995 National League Division Series (NLDS), the opening round of the National League side of the 1995 MLB Postseason, began on Tuesday, October 3, and ended on Saturday, October 7, with the champions of the three NL divisions—along with a ...

Game results

Line score

After a scoreless first inning and a half, the Pirates secured the first runs of the game with home runs by

Marlon Byrd Marlon Jerrard Byrd (born August 30, 1977) is an Americans, American former professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers, ...

and Russell Martin in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Martin's home run came after Reds starting pitcher

Johnny Cueto Johnny Cueto Ortiz (; born February 15, 1986) is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Chicago W ...

, having his name chanted mockingly by over 40,000 Pirates fans, dropped the baseball from the mound. Martin hit a home run on the next pitch. In the bottom of the third, Pedro Alvarez hit a sacrifice-fly to

Shin-Soo Choo Shin-Soo Choo (; ; born July 13, 1982) is a South Korean former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Texas Rangers, before ending his car ...

, which allowed

Andrew McCutchen Andrew Stefan McCutchen (born October 10, 1986) is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the San Francisco Giants, New Y ...

to score. In the top of the fourth, with Choo and

Ryan Ludwick Ryan Andrew Ludwick (born July 13, 1978) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, an ...

on base,

Jay Bruce Jay Allen Bruce (born April 3, 1987) is an American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies and New Y ...

hit a groundball single to Pirates left-fielder Starling Marte, allowing Choo to score. In the bottom of the fourth, Marte and

Neil Walker Neil Martin Andrew Walker (born September 10, 1985) is an American former professional baseball second baseman and current broadcaster. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Milwaukee Bre ...

scored off RBI hits by Walker and Byrd, respectively. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Russell Martin hit another home run. The Reds could only further respond with a Choo home run off of

Tony Watson Anthony Michael Watson (born May 30, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels. Watson attend ...

. The Pirates would maintain their lead and go on to win, with

Jason Grilli Jason Michael Grilli (born November 11, 1976) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Ange ...

closing the game.

References

External links

2013 National League Wild Card Game
at ''Baseball Reference'' {{DEFAULTSORT:2013 National League Wild Card Game National League Wild Card Game Cincinnati Reds postseason Pittsburgh Pirates postseason 2013 in sports in Pennsylvania Major League Baseball Wild Card Game October 2013 sports events in the United States 2013 in Pittsburgh