PITTSBURGH — Daniel Vogelbach finished his swing, dropped his bat and stared toward the Clemente Wall in right field. The Pirates’ designated hitter found a low-and-inside fastball, and he did what many left-handed hitters do with pitches there — pulverized it. No question Vogelbach knew it was gone.
While Vogelbach figuring a 110.6 mph missile would leave the shortest part of PNC Park might not sound like a terribly long leap, the bigger picture of what transpired Wednesday afternoon was even more unexpected than the summer-like conditions.
The Vogelbach home run, his team-high fifth of the season, put the Pirates ahead for good and helped them to a 5-3 win over the Dodgers, one that produced a series victory over one of the best teams in Major League Baseball and an outfit with a payroll, oh, about 4 1/2 times the size of the one in Pittsburgh.
