The Pittsburgh Pirates, a successful comedy troupe and unsuccessful baseball team based out of Western Pennsylvania, have charmed and delighted audiences with their antics all year, and last night against the Cubs, they once again got silly with it. In the 11th inning, Sam Howard popped Ian Happ up in the infield with a runner on third. For almost any other team, the relatively easy out would have been recorded. Instead, Wilmer Difo did this:
You will hopefully remember when first baseman Will Craig briefly forgot how baseball worked and made the funniest bungled play of the season, and as good as this dropped infield fly is, it still pales in comparison to the Craig screwup. However, like many good bits, the dropped pop-up is a callback to a Pirates classic. They won 98 games back in 2015, but were, fundamentally, still the Buccos.
Losing this way to the Cubs on Thursday would be a clever button on an uproarious arc, but the network has ordered 28 more games of The Pittsburgh Pirates this fall, and already renewed it for next season.
