Pirates notebook
Opening-week awards for Benson and Sanders PITTSBURGH – Kris Benson joined Reggie Sanders on the awards circuit Tuesday to cap off what was a red-hot opening week by the Pirates.
Sanders was named the National League Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .444 (8 for 18) with four home runs and 11 RBIs. His slugging percentage was an NL-best 1.111. It was the fourth time Sanders has won the award.
Sanders homered for a cycle of sorts, hitting a solo shot, a two-run blast, a three-run clout and a grand slam during the week.
Benson went 2-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA in two starts to earn the first ESPN Baseball Tonight Player-of-the-Week award. Benson allowed nine hits and four walks in 13 1-3 innings with nine strikeouts.
Benson missed the entire 2001 season and had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. He returned to the major leagues on May 13 last year and went 9-6 with 4.70 ERA in 25 starts.
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SOUNDING OFF: Benson and Sanders aren’t the only players in the organization off to a hot start.
Pittsburgh’s Class AAA Nashville Sounds were 4-0 heading into Tuesday night, and their latest win, which came on Monday against Albuquerque, was a historic one for pitcher John Wasdin and the team.
Wasdin fired the first perfect game in the franchise’s 26-year history and first no-hitter since 1988.
Wasdin, a 30-year-old right-hander, struck out 15 and threw just 100 pitches, 72 of which were strikes in the 4-0 victory.
First baseman Adam Hyzdu hit a two-run homer, third baseman Mike Gulan went 3 for 4 with a double and shortstop Aaron Holbert also had two hits, including a double, in support of Wasdin.
So could Wasdin help the Pirates later this season? That would be hard to gauge from last year’s performance.
Wasdin spent the 2002 season pitching for Yomiuri of the Japanese Central League, going 1-4 with a 4.54 ERA in just 10 games, including seven starts. He struck out 31 with nine walks in 37 2-3 innings, but allowed 55 hits.
Wasdin was a former first-round draft pick by the Athletics (25th pick overall) and has plenty of major-league experience. He’s appeared in 258 games, mainly as a reliever, for four different teams before being signed as a minor-league free agent by the Pirates on Dec. 1, 2002. He’s pitched for Oakland, Boston, Colorado and Baltimore.
Wasdin was fairly effective for the Orioles in 2001. He went 1-1 with a 4.17 ERA and had 47 strikeouts in 49 2-3 innings with 16 walks.
Wasdin has always had a good strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.26 to 1), but has never had an ERA lower than 4.12 and is at 5.07 for his career.
Wasdin’s best season came in 1999 when he compiled an 8-3 record with a 4.12 ERA out of the bullpen.
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GIVE HIM A HAND: The Pirates unveiled a sculpture honoring Ralph Kiner before the game, which depicts the former Bucs’ slugger’s hands gripping his signature baseball bat. The sculpture will go on display near the left-field entrance to PNC Park.
Kiner led the league in homers a major-league record seven consecutive years from 1946 to 1952 while with the Pirate. Kiner also hit homers in three straight All-Star games, another record, and was the first NL player to hit 50 or more homers in a season twice.
Kiner was on hand for the ceremony and spoke highly of his time in Pittsburgh, despite playing for a perennial losing team.
Kiner thanked Pittsburgh for “being a part of me and one of the great cities of all time.
“We didn’t have one of the greatest teams in baseball, but we did have great fans,” he added.
Pirates’ attendance almost doubled from 1945, before Kiner arrived, to 1947, his second season.
Kiner made light of the poor teams he played on with the Pirates, pointing out one of the “good” things about that was “on the road we never had to play the bottom of the ninth,” and adding that at home games his family “would come in the bottom of the second because they knew I wouldn’t bat in the first inning.”
Kiner didn’t disappoint fans of his announcing career by muttering at least one “Kinerism” by mistakenly calling Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy “McClatski.”
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NOTES: The Pirates also honored former pitcher Nellie Briles as the winner of the 2003 Pride of the Pirates award in a pregame ceremony. “In addition to his success on the field, Nellie has continued to contribute to the ball club for more than 17 years by being a Pirates goodwill ambassador throughout our region,” said McClatchy. … Through Monday’s games, Class AA Altoona was 2-2, and Class A Lynchburg and Hickory were 3-0 and 3-1, respectively, for the Pirates. … Only one of the 11 pitchers Nashville has used this season has given up a run, that being Ryan Vogelsong. … Former Pirate Todd Ritchie (0-0, 6.00) pitches for the Brewers today against the Bucs’ Josh Fogg (1-0, 5.40) in a 7:05 p.m. start. In Thursday’s 12:35 p.m. series finale, Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets (0-1,5.25) faces Jeff Suppan (1-0, 1.50.)