October 1 still carries a jolt in Pittsburgh, and it always will.
Thirteen years ago, PNC Park was alive with more than 40,000 fans who had waited over two decades to see October baseball return. Johnny Cueto was on the mound for Cincinnati, the ballpark was shaking, and the noise kept building with every pitch. Then came the sequence that still lives in Pirates lore.
“CUETO! CUETO! CUETO!”
The chant rolled through every deck of the stadium as Cueto tried to settle himself. He smiled.
He lost the ball. The crowd only got louder.
On the next pitch, Russell Martin drove a fastball over the left-field wall.
PNC Park exploded.
It was one of those moments that sounds exaggerated until you remember it really happened. Pittsburgh had already grabbed the lead when Marlon Byrd homered earlier in the second inning, and Martin’s blast pushed the Pirates ahead 2-0. They went on to beat the Reds 6-2 and move on to the National League Division Series.
For people who were there - inside the park, watching from a home in western Pennsylvania, or even from a library stairwell on a college campus in North Carolina - that night felt like the moment the Pirates became relevant again. The blacked-out crowd.
The towels. Francisco Liriano getting an out and setting off another surge.
Cueto getting rattled. Martin rounding the bases as the camera shook.
It all stuck.
That’s what makes the anniversary so sharp. The memory is beautiful, but it also points to everything that came after.
The Pirates have spent the years since chasing another night like it. They got back to the Wild Card Game in 2014 and 2015 and ran into Madison Bumgarner and Jake Arrieta. They haven’t won a postseason game since that night against Cincinnati.
The years have brought plenty of change around the team. Players have moved on.
Managers have changed. Front offices have changed.
Rebuilds have been started, scrapped and renamed. PNC Park has seen memorable regular-season moments, and the Pirates finally posted a winning record again in 2026.
But October still hasn’t returned.
That’s why the 2013 game matters so much. It was bigger than a box score.
It was a city getting permission to believe again after 20 straight losing seasons. It was Andrew McCutchen’s Pirates becoming more than a promising young team.
For one night, Pittsburgh didn’t have to wonder whether its baseball team might matter someday. It mattered then.
It also remains the clearest answer to any doubt about what this fan base can be when the product gives it a reason to care. Pirates fans get criticized for empty seats, frustration and cynicism, but October 1, 2013 is the strongest rebuttal available.
Give Pittsburgh meaningful baseball, and PNC Park can become one of the loudest places in the sport. Cueto learned that firsthand.
Thirteen years later, the clip of him dropping the ball still gets replayed. The chant still hits. Martin’s homer still lands the same way.
That isn’t because Pirates fans can’t move on. It’s because the organization hasn’t given them anything newer.
The “Cueto” game should be remembered as proof of how electric Pittsburgh can be when baseball matters. It should also stand as a reminder of how much opportunity has been left on the table since then.
Bob Nutting didn’t have to guess whether Pittsburgh would show up for a winner. He got the answer that night. He saw the crowd, heard the noise and watched 40,000-plus people turn one game into something bigger.
And yet more than a decade later, Pirates fans are still being asked to hold onto that same postseason victory. That’s the part of the anniversary that stings.
October 1, 2013 was magical because it felt like the end of 20 years of misery. Nobody in that ballpark knew it would also become the start of another painfully long wait.
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