Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Pittsburgh Pirates are above .500 at the All Star Break. Oh what’s that? You were stopping me, because you have heard this before.
The past two seasons, the Pirates have shown signs of breaking the long steak of losing seasons being above .500 at the All Star Break. The team even was in first place in the NL Central in late July. However, the Pirates could not sustain the success and would extend the streak each year, finishing 72-90 and 79-83 respectively.
This year is the same song and dance as the two seasons prior. Pittsburgh sits in second place in the NL Central, one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals.
There seems to be something different about this year’s team that would make fans believe that the streak will finally be broken. The team looks poised to make a run not only at a winning record, but also at a playoff berth.
The Buccos sport the league’s top ERA at 3.07.There pitching has been sensational, led by seasoned veteran Francisco Liriano, who has a 9-3 record to go along with a 2.00 ERA and 80 strikeouts. Jeff Locke, who was an All Star selection, holds an 8-2 record with a 2.15 ERA.
Pittsburgh even called up young pitching sensation, Gerrit Cole from AAA Altoona. Cole started off red hot, but has since cooled down a little bit. He is 4-3 with a 3.89 ERA. Veterans AJ Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez have been on the disabled list for some time now, but should be ready to go after the All Star Break, which should help the Pirates.
Jason Grilli, who is also an All Star, is 29/30 in save opportunities and has a 1.99 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and 63 strikeouts. Opposing batters are batting just .176 against him. Grilli is a journeyman who is now the anchor of the “Shark Tank” the name given to the Pittsburgh bullpen.
While the pitching has been superb, the hitting is suspect. The team is batting .243 which ranks 26th in the MLB. It has struck out a combined 776 times, which is seventh. It has only hit 89 home runs, which ranks 18th.
Pedro Alvarez, another Pittsburgh All Star, has 24 of the 89 home runs, and currently sits second in the National League. For as many long balls as Alvarez has hit, he’s only batting .250.
Andrew McCutchen, who was once again named an All Star, leads the team in batting average with .302 and an OBP of .376. He has hit 10 home runs to go along with 49 RBIs. Cutch has scored 56 runs and swiped 20 bags on the year.
Another bright spot for the Pirates is Starling Marte. He has potential to be one of the league’s better players in years to come and is showing signs of that thus far. He is batting .291 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs, and 59 runs scored. He has 107 hits. Once he is on the base paths, look out as he has stolen 28 bases this season.
So once again the Pittsburgh Pirates are in good position at the All Star Break. Can the pitching hold up? Can the team go out and get a middle-of-the-lineup hitter to help the offense? Is this finally the year that the Pirates break the 20-year losing skid?
