On Tuesday, Peter and myself were on the road for a total of 12 hours round-trip. We were rewarded with a 2 1/2 hours of baseball and a nice round of seeing the city of Pittsburgh.

Pre-game, we walked around the Pittsburgh strip district and ate at Primanti Brothers, but just like somebody showing you their vacation slides, I know you don't care about all that. I'll just jump into the game instead.

Tuesday was the 100 year anniversary of the opening of Forbes Field, and to celebrate the Pirates had several notable former players at the ballpark. They included Bill Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillen and Elroy Face. Also on the dockett were general admission bleacher seats for the low, low price of $4. These are the seats we purchased before we made the trip.

However, those seats were not to be for us. On a whim, Peter decided to text someone he knew that lives in Pittsburgh and, long story short, we ended up with tickets on the third base line that belonged to a season ticket holder who wasn't attending that day. Awesome.

We got to the park in time to see batting practice and walk around to take in the PNC Park experience. It's true what they say: every view is a good view at PNC. Beautiful ball park. More on that from Peter at a later date.

The game itself was a fast-moving pitchers' duel, with Ross Ohlendorf vs Ted Lilly.

"The Boss" Ohlendorf, converted from being a failed power pitcher into being a fairly effective sinkerball pitcher this year, was in rare form on this day. At the end of the game, he struck out eight Cubs while walking none through seven shutout innings. He allowed only four base runners.

His mound opponent Ted Lilly was less flashy, but only slightly less effective. Also going seven innings, he struck out seven Pirates while walking two, but more hits from Pirates bats found the gaps and he ended up surrendering all three runs of the ball game. In Lilly's defense, there was also a crucial dropped third strike that resulted in Brandon Moss reaching base and one run scoring.

Other noteowrhy events included Andrew McCutchen breaking out of an 0-for-20 slump and collecting two hits and Geovany Soto proving that he is not a baserunning genius.

At one point the Cubs were threatening when John Grabow entered the game and promptly put runners on second and third. I could see and hear Cubs fans around me gaining confidence, and being obnoxious about it.

Let's have an aside for a moment on Cubs fans.

Attention Cubs fans: when you are at an away game, do not act like you're still at Wrigley Field. Don't attempt to start "let's go Cubs" chants. Don't stand up and go crazy when you still haven't pushed a single run across the plate. Don't do it. You're a visiting team. You're in hostile territory. Act like it. Jerseys and hats are fine. Behaving as though your team is the home team is not.

Anyway, Grabow bore down after allowing the runners and struck out two Cubs in a row before forcing a groundout to end the inning. Cubs fans were treated to a belligerent dose of reality from the home-town fans, wh onever let up after the Cubs lost 3-0. Let this be a lesson: if you act like the away team is the home team, be prepared to be embarrased if they don't pull through.

Post-game, we headed back to Indianapolis while listening to the Pirates post game show, Extra Innings with Rocco DeMaro. I called in to discuss my experience at PNC Park as well as the trades the Pirates made earlier that day, and from that point on it was simply a matter of getting home without falling asleep.

Overall, I would rate this road trip a 9.5/10. The only thing that kept it from being perfect for me is that I would have liked to have seen more Pirates fans in attendance at PNC Park. The fans that were there provided a great atmosphere, however.