On the afternoon of May 22nd, my dad sent me an e-mail about how disappointed he’d been in the Pirates through 40 games, but that he and my mom and brother were going down to PNC to watch the Pirates and Mets. I agreed with him that I was worried that at 18-22 and eight games behind the Cardinals, the Pirates might have ruined their chances to win the NL Central before the summer even began. I signed off by telling him that no matter how the Pirates were playing, that Gerrit Cole and Noah Syndergaard was a great ticket to have, and that it would be a fun game, regardless of our frustration with the Pirates.
That night, Gerrit Cole struck out ten Mets, the Pirates cruised to a 4-1 win, and they never looked back. With this afternoon’s easy 4-0 win over the Reds, the Pirates finish the 2015 season with 98 wins and Major League Baseball’s second best record. It is impossible and unfair to ask for a team to do better than this. After that 18-22 start, the Pirates went 80-42. As a Pittsburgh Pirate fan, you certainly recall that from 1993-2012, the Pirates didn’t win 80 games in any season. This year, they did it in the final three-quarters of the year.
For some context, the last time the Pirates won 98 games was 1991. Before that, you have to go to 1979. Before that, you have to go back to 1909. You read that correctly: this is only the third time that the Pittsburgh Pirates have won 98 games since 1909. This is not for lack of good teams, either, as the Pirates won World Series in 1925, 1960, and 1971, without hitting this 98-win plateau and their five World Series wins are tied for fourth in National League history. If you go by winning percentage, which is a little more fair given the shifting length of the MLB season, then the only other seasons in Pirate history in which the Pirates finished with a winning percentage of better than .600 were 1991, 1979, 1972, 1960, 1927, 1925, and then the Honus Wagner era of 1912, 1909, 1908, 1906, 1905, 1903, 1902, and 1901. You can add your 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates to that list now. They just finished up what is without a doubt one of the best regular seasons in the history of one of baseball’s oldest and most storied franchises.
I understand that our final impression of these Pirates will come from the playoffs, and I pretend like any amount of me shouting that 98 wins is a great year regardless of a loss in a coin flip game will change anybody’s mind on that front (nor will I pretend like I would actually believe myself if it does come to that). Instead, let’s just take today to appreciate this team for what it is before we start concerning ourselves with Jake Arrieta and the Cubs. The Pirates won 98 games this year. Despite their early season offensive woes, the only player with 500+ plate appearances that didn’t finish with an OPS+ of over 100 was Gregory Polanco. They managed to withstand an awful April from Andrew McCutchen and a revolving door of infield injuries, they managed to have a solid rotation despite 53 starts going to Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton as well as AJ Burnett suffering a mid-season elbow injury that rendered him basically ineffective. Gerrit Cole finally made the leap into the top tier of the National League’s pitching echelon, and he’s the main reason that Pirate fans shouldn’t be absolutely despondent about the prospect of this Wild Card Game. Their bullpen was incredible all year, with Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, Jared Hughes, Arquimedes Caminero, and Antonio Bastardo getting big outs all year while keeping the hiccups to a minimum. When the Pirates needed help at the trade deadline, they got Aramis Ramirez, JA Happ, Joe Blanton, and Joakim Soria. This excited no one, but these four players were exactly what the Pirates needed. Ramirez gave the Pirates the infield depth they needed while waiting for Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison to return from injury, and then again after Jung Ho Kang’s injury. Soria (who was better with the Pirates than you think, with his 2.10 ERA and 2.05 FIP before today’s scoreless inning) and Blanton deepened the bullpen to cover for the rotation’s issues. Happ somehow managed to put up the most impressive stat line of any pitcher moved around this year’s deadline, and that includes David Price’s 9-1/2.30 ERA tear through the American League with the Blue Jays. Most of the season feature Jung Ho Kang’s incredible introduction to Major League Baseball, full of scorched opposite field extra base hits, big home runs, and fantastic finger wagging. The saddest moment of the ROOT Sports post-game highlight reel of the season was remembering that he can’t play in the playoffs due to a stupid and preventable injury.
It’s easy to look at the Wild Card Game on Wednesday and say that the Pirates could’ve avoided it with a few more wins against the Reds and/or Brewers or a 22-18 start instead of an 18-22 start. All of that sort of misses the point, though, which is that 98 wins is a spectacular season, that it’s enough to win the NL Central in most years, and that we would’ve been certain that it was plenty for this year on Opening Day or on May 20th or probably even at the All-Star Break.
Starting on Monday, we’ll have 2 1/2 days to freak out over Jake Arrieta, to silently re-live the horror of Brandon Crawford’s grand slam, to wonder if Gerrit Cole has what it takes to match Arrieta pitch-for-pitch, to try and banish the memory of Madison Bumgarner drowning himself in beer in the PNC clubhouse. If the Pirates lose, we’ll have an entire winter to wonder how the Pirates find the two wins that were missing this year (among larger, more existential dreads about their place in the NL Central going forward), and if they win then we’ll move on to the Cardinals. What tonight is for is this: the Pittsburgh Pirates won 98 games this year. They are certainly the best Pirate team of the last 23 years and they might be the best Pirate team of the last 35. They are not pretty good or unexpectedly good or conditionally good or anything like that — they are a really, really good baseball team. As recently as 2012, I wasn’t sure a Pirate team like this could ever exist, but here they are. Let’s savor this, for just a moment, because in 72 hours it’s going to be the furthest thing from our minds.
Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
