The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t play their best baseball during the first half of the 2014 season, but somehow they find themselves only three and a half games out of first place in the NL Central and three games out of the NL Wild Card.
The pitching staff has not been the group that put up a 2.99 team pre-All-Star break ERA last season as the starting staff didn’t get the season started on the right foot. Pirates starters only won four games through the first 42 games of the season. Reliable starters like Wandy Rodriguez — who was released on May 30 — didn’t pan out from last year, and injuries to Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano further hampered things.
The bullpen also took a step down in the first half compared to last season. In 2013, the Pirate pen blew 15 saves over the course of 162 games. Through 92 games this season, the pen has already matched that mark. Like Rodriguez, Jason Grilli didn’t have the same effectiveness from last year and was traded to the Angels for Ernesto Frieri. Other guys like Mark Melancon, Jeanmar Gomez and Justin Wilson haven’t produced at the rate of least year, as well.
The defense didn’t play it’s best ball with 67 errors (fourth most in the MLB). Alvarez leads the majors with 20 errors through 88 games with most coming from throwing errors to first base. Jordy Mercer is still learning the ins and outs of his position with six errors at SS which puts him in the middle of the pack for that position.
The offense had another slow start to the 2014 campaign as players like Starling Marte and Pedro Alvarez haven’t consistently produced at the pace they were expected to. Production did pick up though, as the offense ranked second in BA (.270), third in OPS (.745), fourth in home runs (25), fourth in RBI (25) and fourth in slugging (.404) in the month of June.
Those numbers have been aided by the play of Andrew McCutchen, who is currently on track for another MVP, Neil Walker, who would have been an All-Star had it not been for a stint on the DL due to appendicitis and rookie sensation Gregory Polanco, who has been putting up solid numbers since his call-up on June 10.
The Pirates trailed the Brewers in the NL Central by nine games on June 28. Since then — even with a 2-5 road trip to end the first half — the team has made up five and a half games over 14 games. Liriano and Cole should be ready by the end of the month and if the offense can keep producing, there may be an outside shot at another PNC blackout in October.
(Photo Credit: Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
