That’s right. I promise you’re reading that right. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 16-7 and have won 7 straight baseball games, giving them the 2nd best record in Major League Baseball. The PITTSBURGH PIRATES! Yes we’re roughly a month into the season but I don’t care. This is the best story in baseball so far and I’m here for it because absolutely nobody saw this coming. Yes the Pirates have a few young exciting pieces and people may have thought “hey maybe they won’t lose 100 games this year.” But that was the extent of it. Right now the Pittsburgh Pirates are a real MLB team, winning baseball games. The past 2 seasons they have lost over 100 games, but that will (hopefully) end this season.
NO ONE expected the Pirates to have the best record in the National League and the 2nd best record in baseball as we sit here on April 24. Their early success is even more impressive when you think of the players they’ve lost to injury so far just this season:
Oneil Cruz who many were expecting to have a breakout year, potentially have a 30/30 season
JT Brubaker who was supposed to be a piece of the starting rotation
Ji-Man Choi who is an impact bat, career .767 OPS
Everything is going right for the Pirates right now. Starting pitchers have a 2.15 ERA over their last 13 games, which is the best in MLB. They’re outscoring opponents 45-15 over the last 7 games. Get this, the Pirates' 16-7 start is their best start to a season since 1992! (They also won the division that year...)
Photo via Charles LeClaire/ USA Today Sports
And then on Sunday morning they called up 33 year old Drew Maggi, who has played over 1000 games in the minors, grinding away to get the chance to play in the majors. The vibes are high in Pittsburgh right now, and I love that everyone is on board to support this Pirates team.
Between the Pirates and Orioles, the two teams have been in a similar boat in recent years, with both teams basically not being taken seriously and expecting 100 loss seasons before the year even starts. We saw it with the Orioles last year, where they turned things around unexpectedly and finished with a record over .500, and just missing a spot in the postseason. Do we see that with the Pirates this season?
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