Pirates Division Struggles Continue

Photo Courtesy of Scott Kane Associated Press

The Pittsburgh Pirates record against their own division speaks for itself. Their record against their National League Central rivals is a whopping 10-22 and somehow miraculously they sit in third place, partially due to Cincinnati’s historically bad 3-22 start.

As well as the young Cubs learning their way in the big leagues much like the Pirates. Earlier in the season the Pirates and Cubs played a four-game series at Wrigley Field where the Pirates took three of four games but somehow still were outscored by 17 runs due to a 21-0 thumping. But the Pirates have a more experienced team than the Cubs (and something like that is inexcusable), and yet they still can’t seem to find a way to make the N.L. Central at least a little bit interesting.

The Pirates have a combined two wins against the Cardinals and Brewers, the two teams ahead of them in the division and both of them came at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. This past week the Pirates were one pitch away from being no hit and one game away from reaching a 10-game losing streak. June 13, in game two of a doubleheader, Cardinal’s pitcher Miles Mikolas pitched 8.2 innings and had a 2-2 count on Cal Mitchell before he hit a ball over the head of the centerfielder Harrison Bader for a book rule double to break up the no hitter. The Pirates still lost the game, and the series at that point, and their offensive struggles continued.

One problem the Pirates had during their past series in St. Louis was the ability to keep the lead. June 13, in game one of the series the Pirates opened up to a 5-0 lead mid-way through the game but ended up blowing a comfortable lead and lost 7-5. June 14, in the series finale, they again opened with an early 4-0 lead but had lost that lead as well. Only this the Pirates possible lone All-Star Bryan Reynolds game up clutch and hit a go-ahead two-run-homer in the top of the seventh inning which would be the deciding factor to end the Pirates 9-game losing streak.

The Pirates no-doubt are still a very young team and seem to be getting younger by the week with injuries and guys needing to be called up from Triple-A Indianapolis. Obviously, the Pirates would like to get their first win against St. Louis at home and get their first win against Milwaukee outright, it’s just a matter of when.