.500

If on Opening Day back on April 5, if someone told you that the Pirates would be 24-24 and three games out of first place on Memorial Day, (a) would you have told them that they were nuts, and (b) would you have signed up for it?


I am pretty sure that your answer would be "Yes" to both questions above.  Yet here we are, 24-24 and 3 games out of first after the Bucs have mounted a four game winning streak.


Hell, I'd have been ecstatic if you'd have told me that they would be 4 and 1/2 games ahead of the Brewers, which they are!


The kicker here is how that Pirates have managed this feat with an offensive output that is inept in historic proportions.  You have read my rants on this subject in recent weeks, and the topic has been well documented in the press and the airwaves.  It also drives you absolutely nuts when you think of where the team might be if they would have had anyone to go along with Andrew McCutchen as any sort of offensive threat.  Consider these numbers posted by Dejan Kovacevic on his blog tonight:

• When they score 4 or more runs in a game, the Pirates are 16-2 (frankly, I'm shocked that they have scored four or more 18 times this year).
• When scoring 3 or more runs, they are 20-6.
• Even when they score a measly 2 or more runs, they are 23-10, a pace that would equal 112 wins in a season!

If the amazing pitching can hold up - and that, admittedly, is a big if - then the addition of any kind of offensive threat would seem to mean good things for this team.  Who will that threat be? A more consistent Pedro Alvarez?  Neil Walker coming up to the levels he produced last season?  Neal Huntington pulling the trigger on some sort of transaction that would bring in someone, anyone, who can provide some punch to the line up?  The W-L record when they do score runs would indicate that it might not take all that much to make this team a player in the NL Central over the remainder of the season.


We can dream, can't we?