This is what I wrote after the Pirates’ 7-4 win over the Giants on Tuesday:
This is the sort of game I envisioned the Pirates winning often this year: you can take an early lead, you can erase an early deficit, you can score four runs, but if you’re going to send Chris Heston out to the mound, none of that will matter to the Pittsburgh Pirates.You can take that sentiment and multiply it for last night’s 10-8 win over the Braves.
You can take that sentiment and double it for last night’s 10-8 win over the Braves. Neil Walker had a three-run homer to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead, Starling Marte had a two-run homer to turn a tie game into a 6-4 lead, Gregory Polanco had two hits and scored twice, Francisco Cervelli had four hits, a run, and two RBIs, and Andrew McCutchen had two hits, scored, and drove in a run. Once Walker put the pedal to the metal with his three-run homer in the fifth, the Pirate offense didn’t let up, no matter what Charlie Morton or the bullpen was doing behind them.
The Pirates are 12-2 in their last 14 games, and they’ve scored 80 runs in those 14 games. The Pirates only scored 89 runs in April. The Pirates have now scored the fifth-most runs in the National League, which seemed borderline impossible for the team that opened May by scoring five runs in their first five games.
There were, of course, issues last night. The Pirate defense remains terrible (they made four errors last night) and I still have no idea how it got that way, given how solid it’s been the last few years. No one that pitched last night was particularly bad, but no one was particularly good, either. All of that feels a little academic, though: someone other than the Cole/Burnett/Liriano trio started the game, the bullpen was not great, the Pirates played bad defense, the Braves scored eight runs, and the Pirates won. The Pirates have won 12 out of 14. It’s the last two points that matter most.
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