A cheer erupted when Don Kelly entered the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse Thursday afternoon after his 100th victory as manager, a milestone that he mentioned took longer to reach than he preferred.<\/p>\n
Kelly had another mark in mind. The Pirates had reached the halfway point of the season with a 41-40 record, their first time above .500 after 81 games since 2015. It\u2019s not a coincidence that it was also the last time they reached the postseason, using a 47-34 start to win 98 games.<\/p>\n
A year ago, the Pirates were 32-49 at the halfway point. They entered Friday in fourth place in the National League Central, 9\u00bd games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers but only 2\u00bd games out of wild-card contention.<\/p>\n
Where Kelly is proud of how the Pirates have met adversity with resiliency this season, never wavering from the belief that they can reach the postseason, he believes they are in a \u201cgood spot but not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what excites me about the second half, is that I don\u2019t believe we\u2019ve played our best baseball,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s been as consistent as we can be, and we\u2019re right there and acknowledging we need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pirates had an air of optimism after taking two of three games in the series against the Seattle Mariners, who won 90 games last season and are in first place in the American League West. The Pirates have fared well in interleague play this season, winning 15 of 23 games and four consecutive series.<\/p>\n
After finishing last in the majors in home runs, runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS last season, the Pirates have made major improvements offensively. Sparked by the additions of All-Stars Brandon Lowe and Ryan O\u2019Hearn, they now rank third in runs, RBIs and OPS (.746), seventh in slugging (.411) and 14th in home runs (96).<\/p>\n
Since producing winning months in April (14-13) and May (16-12), the Pirates have scuffled by going 9-12 in June while playing without a pair of dynamic playmakers in injured center fielder Oneil Cruz (left hand) and rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin (right elbow).<\/p>\n
The Pirates have a chance to put some space between themselves and the last-place Cincinnati Reds (37-42) in the division standings this weekend. That is, if their starting pitching can go deep into games, their bullpen can hold a lead, their defense doesn\u2019t self-destruct and their bats don\u2019t suddenly go silent. Those were pervasive problems for the Pirates through the first 81 games that they know can\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve shown that we have the ability and the talent to be contenders,\u201d said O\u2019Hearn, who has played first base, right field and designated hitter. \u201cWe\u2019ve made mistakes, obviously. But the beauty of that is we have time to refine that and continue to get better and grow as a unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The starting pitching, expected to be the foundation for success, hasn\u2019t quite lived up to expectations. Yet Pirates starters rank in the top 10 in strikeouts per nine innings (fifth, 9.18), batting average-against (seventh, .235) and ERA (ninth, 3.90).<\/p>\n
The Pirates, however, have lost the past seven starts by Paul Skenes, the unanimous 2025 NL Cy Young winner. Braxton Ashcraft has been better than expected, becoming the first Pirates pitcher in the modern era to produce a pair of performances with 10 or more strikeouts without a walk, but Mitch Keller and Bubba Chandler have been inconsistent.<\/p>\n
The bullpen has been their Achilles\u2019 heel. The Pirates have 17 saves in 33 opportunities. Their 16 blown saves are tied for second-most in the majors with the Los Angeles Angels, one behind the Detroit Tigers. Their relievers have a 4.32 ERA.<\/p>\n
Of course, they traded defense to improve their offense and now rank 18th in defensive runs saved \u2014 tied for the worst at third base and center field \u2014 and in baseball\u2019s bottom 10 in team defensive efficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look back at some of the games we\u2019ve lost, they probably were games we lost and not games where we got beat,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cI know the media likes to talk about pitching but there\u2019s times our offense has gone silent when we\u2019ve had good pitching. \u2026 Hopefully, everybody in here has learned and understands that moving forward we won\u2019t have those issues and can get after it in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem for the Pirates is that they haven\u2019t found a way to get their hitting, starting pitching, relievers and defense to play in sync. That search for synergy has the players shaking their heads at times. The Pirates have a plus-27 run differential yet are 12-16 in one-run games after leaving 607 runners on base \u2014 the second-most in baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever you have, whether it be great hitting, great pitching, great defense, it has to formulate to wins,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that I think we\u2019re still figuring out, how to win those close ballgames. If we\u2019re up a run or two late in the game, figuring out how to put it away. Or if you\u2019re down by one late in the game, figuring out how to put that rally together and get those big hits. We\u2019ve done it well sometimes and we\u2019ve shot ourselves in the foot at times. Just committing to getting better and finding ways to win every day is the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pirates players credit Lowe and O\u2019Hearn as much for bringing positivity to their clubhouse as pop to their lineup. Both come from winning cultures with postseason experience \u2014 Lowe with the Tampa Bay Rays, O\u2019Hearn with the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres \u2014 and believe the Pirates have playoff potential.<\/p>\n
That the Pirates\u2019 longest winning and losing streaks this season are both at five games shows that they are more even-keeled than in past seasons, when losing stretches have sent them into a spiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just have some leadership here in the clubhouse that has been here and done that,\u201d Pirates third baseman Nick Gonzales said. \u201cA losing streak, you don\u2019t panic or put more pressure on anybody. You just go about your business, keep your head and keep working. That\u2019s what these guys do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only two years ago, the Pirates were 48-48 and 1 \u00bd games out of the wild card at the All-Star break, only to endure a post-trade deadline freefall and finish 76-86.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more potential to have more wins. It\u2019s got to turn that way,\u201d Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds said. \u201cIt\u2019s different from years past. We were in it at the All-Star break a few years ago. It\u2019s nice to be where we\u2019re at but there\u2019s a lot more baseball to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pirates can get a boost by the impending return of Griffin, who was batting .317\/.340\/.488 in the 32 games since his 20th birthday before going on the 10-day injured list. They expect Cruz, who still ranks second in home runs (14) and fourth in RBIs (44), to return around the All-Star break. Adding a pair of dynamic five-tool talents to the lineup could make the Pirates even more dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt about that. Cruz and Griffin are two of the really big impact guys in our lineup,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said. \u201cOnce we get back to full strength, it\u2019s going to be really fun, just to have those two quality type of players that can make an impact on the lineup defensively and offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve hung around .500. In my experience in this game, teams that hang around .500 and then get a little bit above .500 and then get to the trade deadline and add pieces, then you can start rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Kelly believes there\u2019s better baseball to be played by the Pirates. The starting rotation, led by Skenes and Ashcraft, is a strength. The bats have flashed power that was missing last year. The defense is improving. The bullpen is ripe for reinforcements, which can be addressed at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
The Pirates have kept their heads above water at the halfway point for the first time in a long time. After a decade-long drought from postseason play, they enter the second half with high hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a better team that we\u2019ll see in the second half, more consistent,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cWe need to play better to get where we want to go. We\u2019re in a good spot but we\u2019re not there yet.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cheer erupted when Don Kelly entered the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse Thursday afternoon after his 100th victory as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-762987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}