{"id":717372,"date":"2026-06-05T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717372\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:34:09","slug":"can-surging-pirates-hold-their-own-against-mlbs-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717372\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Surging Pirates Hold Their Own Against MLB’s Elite?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can Surging Pirates Hold Their Own Against MLB’s Elite?<\/a> originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/a>. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> are rolling. After a rollercoaster first two months<\/a> of the season, they’ve hit their stride<\/a> over the last two weeks, going 8-3 over their last\u00a011 games.<\/p>\n

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After winning back-to-back series<\/a> against the sub-.500 Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros, however, the Pirates are about to face much tougher competition. Their next two series are against the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the two best records in baseball entering play on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Speaking of elite, that’s what you got on tap now,” radio host Adam Crowley said Friday on 93.7 The Fan<\/a>. “And this is it, baby. This is a measuring stick… Find a way to win these series. You’re good enough.”<\/p>\n

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He’s right about that. Pittsburgh has a plus-37 run differential and is second place in the hardest division in baseball.<\/p>\n

The Pirates have an elite offense<\/a> and a strong pitching staff, ranking fourth in baseball in runs per game and\u00a013th in ERA. They can hang with these teams.<\/p>\n

Winning both series would be difficult, but there’s no reason Pittsburgh can’t win one series and go 3-3 against them. If they do, that will prove they’re for real.<\/p>\n

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If the Pirates struggle, however, it may be a reality check that they need more help<\/a> at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

More MLB:\u00a0Radio Host Urges Pirates To Pursue Reunion With Superstar Closer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Surging Pirates Hold Their Own Against MLB’s Elite? originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[239509,4996,64,63,5163,1187,2364,591,5160,85],"class_list":["post-717372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-93-7-the-fan","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-houston-astros","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}