PITTSBURGH -- The ball landed in the shrubbery beyond the center-field fence at PNC Park, and Andrew McCutchen raised his right hand in the air, one finger pointing toward the sky. Up in the broadcast booth, Steve Blass could only scream, three times in a row, “Oh my God!”

As McCutchen rounded third and jogged home, Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown exulted, “You can raise the Jolly Roger and call it maybe the best, all-time, in Pittsburgh!” McCutchen slowed his pace and strode toward his waiting teammates, hands on his hips and swagger in his step. Right when he touched home plate, Brown let loose again: “What a game!”

It was July 11, 2015, and the entire weekend was the emotional high point of the Pirates’ 98-win season. McCutchen, the franchise player and one of the game’s brightest stars, had just launched a walk-off homer to finally defeat the Cardinals, 6-5, in the 14th inning of one of those knock-down, drag-out fights that always seemed to go St. Louis’ way. Not this time.

“That,” McCutchen said afterward, “was definitely a game to remember.”

And it’s a game worth watching again, even if you still remember it.

Fans will no doubt recall the ending of that game -- not to mention what happened the next night, when Gregory Polanco hit a walk-off single to right field in the 10th inning of another nationally televised victory that brought the Bucs within 2 1/2 games of the National League Central-leading Cardinals. But the whole night was full of drama and tension.

Consider the stakes, first of all. As good as the Pirates were from 2013-15, they were relegated to the NL Wild Card Game each year because of the division-winning Cardinals. It was St. Louis that prematurely ended Pittsburgh’s revival in the '13 NL Division Series. Every year since 1999, the Pirates have looked up at the end of the season and seen the Cardinals ahead of them in the standings.

The 2015 Pirates seemed like they might be different, but the Cardinals always stood in their way. The first weekend of May that year, the Cards swept the Bucs at Busch Stadium: three walk-offs, all one-run games that former manager Clint Hurdle compared to World Cup soccer matches. In the end, St. Louis won the season series, 10-9, despite scoring three fewer runs than Pittsburgh in those games, and it claimed the division by two games.

But that weekend in Pittsburgh, in the final series before the All-Star break, the Pirates issued a reminder that they were for real.

Veteran right-hander A.J. Burnett blinked first, giving up a solo homer in the second inning to Mark Reynolds. Catcher Francisco Cervelli thought they had struck out Reynolds on the previous pitch, a 1-2 curveball in the dirt. Cervelli was ejected after disagreeing with the call made by home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza, then Hurdle was ejected for arguing with crew chief Larry Vanover over Cervelli’s dismissal.

Just like that, the Cardinals were ahead, and the Pirates were without their starting catcher and manager. The Cards scored one run in the third and another in the fifth, carrying a 3-0 lead. Then Burnett, of all people, put Pittsburgh on the board.

Burnett homered to left field off John Lackey, his first home run since July 24, 2005. "Definitely one of the highlights for me this year,” the first-time All-Star Burnett observed that night. But the score remained 3-1 until the eighth, when Jung Ho Kang and Pedro Álvarez hit back-to-back RBI singles off reliever Kevin Siegrist.

The game went into extra innings, and Reynolds gave the Cardinals a chance to win by homering again in the 10th off reliever Deolis Guerra. But Kang tripled to lead off the bottom of the frame, and Chris Stewart -- who replaced Cervelli behind the plate -- smacked a game-tying single to right field.

The teams traded zeroes until the 14th, when Matt Carpenter walked and eventually scored on Jhonny Peralta’s single off Vance Worley. But the Pirates battled back one more time, as Neil Walker singled to center to begin the bottom of the inning. Then McCutchen unloaded on Nick Greenwood’s 1-2 sinker to end what was, indeed, a game to remember.

“Save your ticket,” Blass said in the aftermath. “You just saw as good as it can get in the big leagues!”