Explaining the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates and their unexpected success

None of this makes any sense. No one can accurately describe what is going on. The media can’t figure it out, the “experts” can’t figure it out, 29 other teams in baseball can’t figure it out. I can’t figure it out either but I’m going to try in this article.

I’m going to let you know up front, this article is purely coming from this standpoint: I have one question and I’m going to try to relay my thoughts and come up with an eventual solution. I’m not confident that it will happen, you understand, however I believe I can at least come up with a few ideas that we can share together. This isn’t a pre-thought out article with a beginning, middle and end. It could be open-ended by the time I’m done.

The question you ask?  How in the world are these Pittsburgh Pirates 23 games over .500 as of Aug. 6, in first place of not only the National League Central but all of Major League Baseball? It makes no sense whatsoever.

Aug 3, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Mark Melancon (35) delivers a pitch against the Colorado Rockies during the ninth inning at PNC Park. The Pittsburgh Pirates won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Sure, fans of this Pirates team can point to the starting pitching being solid most of the season. Absolutely, fans of the Pirates can point to the bullpen as being the best in the league in most statistical categories. No question, Pirates fans can point fingers at a couple of positional players who have contributed in ways not seen in Pittsburgh since the early 1990s as a reason for this insanity.

The last two seasons, the Pirates have made noise in the first half and were the darlings of baseball. Of course, that always came with question marks about sustainability and sure enough, the team slipped each of those two seasons. This year, the Pirates were picked to finish behind Cincinnati and St. Louis (in that order) by most “experts.”

The starting pitching wasn’t good enough, the hitting isn’t good enough and the bullpen will miss former closer Joel Hanrahan. Be honest, everyone was gunning for the Pirates to finish at or above .500 this season and maybe contend next season as the other two previously mentioned teams were just too strong.

Presently, the Pirates have 67 wins and only need 15 wins out of the 51 games remaining to finish above .500, something they should do and possibly could do before the end of August. If you take a look at the Pirates offense, you would see a team that is no better than middle of the road or bottom of the barrel in most categories. How long was it again from the last time the team hit a sacrifice fly to the next time they hit one? Almost two months?

Facts are, the Pirates seem to score runs in bunches, rather than in situations. This is probably why the team has so many come-from-behind wins because in any given inning, they can click and have a bunch of hits and turn the ball over to the best bullpen in the league. It was actually quite surprising the Pirates didn’t make a move at the trade deadline and I found myself to be a bit disappointed, but I realized this team isn’t going to win by the mere fact of adding someone to hit at situational times.

It’s possible this Pirates team is just a streaky bunch of guys who somehow, someway get it done by having that one big inning or couple of innings that gives them just enough. If the bullpen wasn’t as good as it’s been, this team would probably be much closer to .500 now rather than 23 games over.

It is simply amazing what this team has been able to do and sustain it all season. Take a look at the series vs. the Cardinals last week. I was hoping for three out of five wins in that series, putting the Pirates a half-game back of the Cardinals, but instead they won the first four games and got blown away in the fifth. That seems like Pirates baseball to me. They lost the first game against the Rockies, only to win the next two games and get back to 23 games over.

Think about this for a minute, the Pirates were 19 games over .500 at the all-star break and have supposedly “stumbled” a bit since, but still managed to have a record of 11-7 during that time. That is what good teams do: manage to win more games than they lose and isn’t it cool to think the Pirates had a bit of a bad run but still finished four games over .500?

Aug 3, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Starling Marte (bottom) steals second base as Colorado Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu (9) applies a late tag during the third inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

I look at the Cardinals series as the perfect example of the Pirates’ season thus far. In Game 1, the Pirates jumped all over the Cardinals as to show they aren’t intimidated and Francisco Liriano dominated the game.

In Game 2, the Pirates scored an early run but the run is given back. A.J. Burnett ultimately pitched a nice game even though it wasn’t his best effort, and the Pirates got the win in extra innings with some help from dumb luck. In Game 3, the Pirates got a surprisingly dominant start by Brandon Cumpton and the offense got hits in bunches. Game 4 saw the team go down early but keep clawing until the bullpen took over and the Pirates again did just enough to win the game.

Then Game 5 happened – the Pirates got blown away 13-0 and it was horrible to watch. Maybe that’s why the Pirates are so good?  They can do just enough to win a series and even surprise by taking an extra game or two, but they know a collapse isn’t imminent even after getting blown out.

Maybe they have finally figured out how to stop the bleeding when they lose a game badly or lose a couple of games in a row. Maybe they have the right types of leaders this year to not allow another collapse. Maybe they can do just enough to make some noise in the playoffs. With the pitching staff that is currently in place, would you want to see Liriano, Burnett and Jeff Locke, backed by the best bullpen in the league for a seven-game series?

Go ahead, think about it for a few minutes, how are the Pirates so successful this year?  By playing to their strengths, stopping the bleeding quickly and by doing just enough on offense to win games. At the end of the day, a win is a win and the Pirates are on their way to having a bunch more wins than losses. Finally!