The Major League Baseball Season is only 25 games old, but the Pirates are showing that they are good enough to battle with the elites of the National League. So far this season they have faced some pretty stiff competition, such as the Dodgers, Braves, and Reds.
Last week they had a ten-game home-stand when the Reds, Cardinals, and the Braves came into town. Those 10 games were shortened to nine because of a rainout, but in those nine games the Buccos went 7-2. That’s pretty legit if you ask me, and they took three of four from arguably the hottest team in baseball at the time in the Braves. Not to mention they swept the division rival Reds over the weekend.
Most recently they took their talents to Philly to face the Phillies. In that series they faced some of the best pitchers in the game. Those guys are named Cole Hamels, and Roy Halladay who could all be aces on any other staff. You know what they did, they went and took three of four from the Phillies.
Their starting pitching has been phenomenal to say the least. The top two guys in the rotation are A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez who have both been outstanding for the ball club. Then they are getting what you need out of the other three guys which isn’t anything great but it’s enough to keep them in the ball game. Once Jeff Karstens and Fransisco Liriano come back it’ll be interesting to see how good this staff could be.
The “Shark Tank” otherwise known as the Pirate bullpen is tops in the league. They aren’t allowing too many runs, and they just don’t give up leads. Mark Melancon has been virtually unhittable in every game he has appeared in. And Jason Grilli is throwing some stinky cheese to the plate when he steps on the mound. Grilli is perfect in save opportunities. It’s nice having two pitchers that are lights-out to come in and finish off games.
The offense has been spotty at time,s but that usually happens throughout the course of a 162 game season. Led by the likes of Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen, there will be plenty of runs scored for this team. Marte is playing the way scouts envisioned him playing when the team signed him, and McCutchen is off to a slow start average wise, but you can bet that average will rise when the temperature starts to. Pedro Alvarez is on one of his hot streaks right now and seems to be hitting home runs every game now. If one more bat could get hot and stay somewhat consistent throughout the season, watch out.
By no means has their schedule be easy thus far, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier with the a trip to St. Louis and Milwaukee coming up in the next week. Then the Pirates get to come home and face the Washington Nationals who are one of the favorites to win their division and possibly the National League Pennant.
Photo Credits: NY Times
