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COWHERD-STYLE RECAP: PIRATES 17, NATIONALS 16 — EXTRA INNINGS CHAOS
Folks… I don’t even know where to start with this one.
You want postseason madness? You want drama? You want baseball in its purest, chaotic, ridiculous form?
Look no further than Nationals Park, Game 2, extra innings, 17–16.
Seventeen runs.
Sixteen runs.
Forty-four combined hits.
Folks, that is not a game. That is a brawl in a box office, and somehow, the Pirates walked out smiling.
Darrell Verni — third baseman for Pittsburgh — basically had a cheat code.
Three hits. A double. A triple. A homer. A walk. Five RBIs. Two runs scored. The man did everything short of riding a unicorn across the diamond.
But let’s not ignore Jimmy Rawlings, the guy who had one at-bat in extra innings, and it’s a run-scoring single that wins the game.
He doesn’t even want to talk to the media. He just walks away, like he knows the performance matters more than the narrative. Classic postseason energy.
Now, let’s be honest — pitching? If you’re into the idea that pitching matters, you might have been a little disappointed.
M. Castro, M. Vanderhoff, S. Smith — by the fourth inning, folks, they looked like they were auditioning for a fireworks show. Washington? Same thing.
Every inning? Someone’s hitting. Someone’s scoring. Someone’s wondering why they even bought a ticket.
And yet… somehow… this is why we watch October baseball.
Because in the end, the team that absorbs the chaos and still finds a way to win? That’s who survives.
Right now, that’s Pittsburgh.
Folks, the takeaway is simple:
Verni and the Pirates just turned the Wild Card Series into a street fight.
Washington put up sixteen runs at home, and it still wasn’t enough.
Extra innings. Nail-biting. Jaw-dropping. Heart-attack inducing.
Game 3? Oh, it’s tomorrow.
And if you think either of these teams is done swinging, you are dead wrong.
This series isn’t about strategy. It’s not about rotations. It’s about sheer will.
And right now, Pittsburgh has momentum, swagger, and Verni in the lineup.
The Nationals? They’re still breathing, but they just got told — loudly — that postseason baseball doesn’t care about your stadium.
It doesn’t care about the fans.
It doesn’t even care if you scored sixteen runs.
It just cares about who can finish the fight.
And tomorrow, folks… one team walks out, the other goes home.
Welcome to October.
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