Ian Happ has made a career out of terrorizing his hometown Pirates, JJ Wetherholt did the same earlier this season and, now, Cole Young is the latest.
Young, an alum of North Allegheny Senior High School, hit the deciding home run in the Pirates' 3-2 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday night at PNC Park. It was Young's first career game at the ballpark where he grew up attending games.
"It's pretty special, especially because I've got all my family here, all my friends," Young said after the game. "To do it in the park I grew up watching games in, it's really cool."
Young had gone 0 for 2 in his first two plate appearances, including hitting into a 4-6-3 double play to end Seattle's second inning. Trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Young came to the plate after Luke Raley led off with a double and pounced on a 1-0 sweeper from Mitch Keller, nearly launching it over the stands in right field:
"We called sweeper, and I went 1-0, so I was just trying to get back ahead or even the count at 1-1," Keller said. "Tried to throw a strike with it. He made a really good swing."
While it's a great story to see several Pittsburgh-area players make it to the big leagues, Don Kelly is getting a little tired of the hometown kids coming back and tormenting their childhood team.
"Love that they make it (to the big leagues), but don't want them to do that against us," Kelly said. "Honestly, that was a good swing from Cole right there. Yeah, don't like that at PNC."
THE ASYLUM
Young becomes latest hometown headache
Ian Happ has made a career out of terrorizing his hometown Pirates, JJ Wetherholt did the same earlier this season and, now, Cole Young is the latest.
Young, an alum of North Allegheny Senior High School, hit the deciding home run in the Pirates' 3-2 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday night at PNC Park. It was Young's first career game at the ballpark where he grew up attending games.
"It's pretty special, especially because I've got all my family here, all my friends," Young said after the game. "To do it in the park I grew up watching games in, it's really cool."
Young had gone 0 for 2 in his first two plate appearances, including hitting into a 4-6-3 double play to end Seattle's second inning. Trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Young came to the plate after Luke Raley led off with a double and pounced on a 1-0 sweeper from Mitch Keller, nearly launching it over the stands in right field:
"We called sweeper, and I went 1-0, so I was just trying to get back ahead or even the count at 1-1," Keller said. "Tried to throw a strike with it. He made a really good swing."
While it's a great story to see several Pittsburgh-area players make it to the big leagues, Don Kelly is getting a little tired of the hometown kids coming back and tormenting their childhood team.
"Love that they make it (to the big leagues), but don't want them to do that against us," Kelly said. "Honestly, that was a good swing from Cole right there. Yeah, don't like that at PNC."
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