"Nothing better," Gregory Polanco was beaming through that schoolboy smile. "There's nothing better."
There really isn't. Not in baseball, anyway.
Not the richly anticipated arrival of Chris Archer on this sweetest of summer nights at PNC Park. Not Archer's two riveting, rally-killing strikeouts in the second. Not the offense, powered by Polanco's early two-run triple, overcoming Archer's admittedly 'amped up' 4 1/3-inning debut. Not the appreciative, forgiving, passionate crowd of 26,773 that demonstrated all over again that our city does, in fact, care about baseball. Not Keone Kela posting a zero in his own debut. Not Adam Frazier's bounceback three hits, including the winner in the eighth. Not Felipe Vazquez reminding everyone who's the real closer here.
Not even clawing past the Cardinals, 7-6, to break their tie in the Central standings amid an honest-to-Nutting pennant race in Pittsburgh.
[caption id="attachment_672947" align="aligncenter" width="440"]
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO[/caption]
Nope. Nothing's better in baseball than the great throw from the outfield.
"Nothing," Sean Rodriguez was echoing from the nearest stall. "The ball's getting to Greg, it's there on a bounce, you know they're sending the guy, you there's going to be a play, we all jump up to the top railing of the dugout ..."
He stopped there, but that's OK. It's my job to tell the stories around here.
To continue reading, log into your account:
