Jason Grilli has gotten some time to reminisce on the 2013 Pirates in recent weeks.
With the 2020 MLB season delayed due to the COVID-19 crisis, television markets all over the country have taken to showing old games for fans to watch, giving them an opportunity to look back on the good ol’ days.
For the Pittsburgh area, that means showing the 2013 NL wild card game, when the Pirates beat the Reds, 6-2, to win their first playoff game since 1992 in front of a raucous crowd at PNC Park. Grilli, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to polish that game off, is no different from other starved baseball fans and has watched the replays himself, taking the time to remember one of his fondest baseball memories.
“I still have people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you,’ and, ‘That was one of the greatest moments of my life,’ ” Grilli said Thursday. “I’m just like, ‘Wow. Appreciate it. I’m just happy to share it with you.’ It feels even more special now — to me even — because when you’re playing, you don’t get the time to reflect on your career as much as you do when you're retired and you get to relive some of those moments.”
Grilli, who now resides in Pittsburgh and has said in the past that he is adjusting to “becoming a full-time Yinzer,” talked a lot about his memories from that 2013 team in a radio appearance with Post-Gazette columnists Ron Cook and Joe Starkey on their 93.7 The Fan radio show.
That includes the crowd noise and atmosphere from that game against the Reds. Famously, the crowd chanted “Cueto” at Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto at multiple points. Those chants only increased in volume when Cueto dropped the ball before stepping on the rubber in the second inning. He then picked it up, stepped back on the mound and gave up a solo bomb to Pirates catcher Russell Martin to send the fans into hysterics.
“I can’t see how they didn’t,” Grilli said when asked if he believes the crowd affected Cueto and the Reds. “I mean, right from the national anthem, [McCutchen’s] mom sang the national anthem, I just remember going, ‘The Cincinnati Reds are in trouble.’ We had home field advantage. They weren’t playing just us, the Pirates, they were playing the city of Pittsburgh that night, and everybody that was and wasn’t at that stadium that night.”
Grilli was also asked about how things have changed since then. Specifically, his manager from his stint with the Pirates, Clint Hurdle, was fired this offseason, with first-year manager Derek Shelton set to take over for 2020.
For his part, Grilli recalled his time with the Colorado Rockies, where he also played for Hurdle for a time, saying he was grateful for Hurdle putting him in a position to succeed in both Denver and Pittsburgh. Although, Grilli said, he does understand that sometimes things don’t work out perfectly in the end.
“He believed in me there, and he tried to be that consummate leader that he wanted to be,” Grilli said. “He wanted to change the culture here, so he was able to do that. And sometimes, like I said, you can lead for so long, and sometimes even when you’re doing the right things it doesn’t work out. Sometimes, even as a manager, they’re your teammates. It falls apart. You need a change. Whatever the case may be. But I can say, during that time, we stuck together as a team, as a unit, and we tried to all go in the same direction.”
The 2013 replays are a reminder of how that mindset worked for a time. And for Grilli, it also serves as a reminder for how much he’s hoping baseball comes back as soon as possible.
“Turning back to that 2013 feeling, when you turn on that replay of that game, and you see actual people in the stands crying, I’m getting chills,” Grilli said. “They didn’t leave until long after the game was over. People just really wanted to feel like, ‘All right, we stuck it out and believed. Don’t ever give up.’
“And I hope that, just in general, baseball needs to be played at some point. I’m hoping that — even little league. My kids both play baseball, and I’m excited to get back out to hear the crack of the bat, the pop of the mitt. It’s just something that’s engrained in us, and we need that. We need things to get back to normal here real soon.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: April 2, 2020, 6:07 p.m.