It would be easy to dismiss the Pirates’ clinching of a third straight playoff berth in Colorado tonight, were you inclined to do so. The Cardinals won again, so a division title remains hugely unlikely. No matter how many games the Pirates win, they will finish with at least 20 losses to the Reds and Brewers in a season when just 15 losses to those two clubs would’ve changed the season. They know who they’re going to face in the Wild Card Game and Jake Arrieta presents at least as tall of a task as Madison Bumgarner did last year. Even this particular clinching win was not inspiring, what with a 7-2 lead becoming a 7-6 lead in the blink of an eye and Gregory Polanco limping off of the field during the top of the ninth’s six-run rally. If you really want to, you could be bitter or cynical or indifferent about the Pirates’ third straight playoff berth, at least until we know how the Wild Card Game will play out.
But why would you want to? If 2013 was a bolt out of the darkness and 2014 was a validation that we didn’t dream up what happened in 2013, then 2015 proves that the Pirates aren’t going anywhere for a while. This is easily the best Pirate team that any of us have seen since the 1991 club that probably represented the Bonds/Bonilla/Van Slyke/Drabek Pirates at the peak of their power, and it might be the best since even before then. All of the fretting that I and everyone else did over 18-22 seems insane tonight; the Pirates are 74-38 since then.
The way that we remember these Pirates will ultimately be decided, but for tonight this is a team worth celebrating. Baseball only lets ten of its 30 clubs into the playoffs every year. That’s the lowest percentage of playoff teams in any North American sports league. Three years in a row now, the Pirates have been one of those teams. It’s an achievement, and while it’s hopefully the first of several for this Pirate team that doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Four years ago, this Pirate team was much more like the hapless Rockie team that they pounded into submission with an endless six-run ninth inning tonight. That was a long time ago, but it wasn’t so long ago that we should forget what it felt like. That’s why we celebrate these Pirates tonight, and that’s why we worry about tomorrow when it gets here.
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