PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have gotten off to their hottest start since the 1992 squad had the same 20-9 start to their season.
The only other Pirate team to best that start? The 1921 Pirates who were 23-6 after their first 29 games. It has surprised nearly everyone around baseball, and the Pirates now own the second-best record in all of Major League Baseball.
The best record belongs to the Tampa Bay Rays, who have the same record as the 1921 Pirates, 23-6. And guess what? The fates aligned, and the two best teams in baseball are facing off this week in Tampa.
On Monday’s edition of the Locked On Pirates podcast, host Ethan Smith was joined by Gary Morgan, the Pirates Fan Forum Podcast host, who discussed the Pirates’ hot start to the 2023 season.
Smith said, “To put this into perspective for everyone, the Pirates didn’t get their 20th win last season until May 30th.” Smith then asked Morgan what this hot start means for the Pirates going forward, and this is what Morgan had to say, “It means they’ve given themselves an 11-game buffer on .500.” He added, “And regardless of whether you think it’s real or not, you probably think they’re still at least a .500 team.”
The Pirates have only lost twice since April 17, one game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and one against the Washington Nationals.
They won both of those series two out of three. The last time they were under .500 was on April 2 when they were 1-2. Since then, they’ve only lost one series—they lost two out of three games to the defending champion Houston Astros.
This is where the three-game series against the Rays come in. The Pirates now have a chance to show people this start isn’t a fluke. That task is tough.
They’re playing against a Rays team who is currently 14-2 at home. Luckily for the Pirates, they are 11-5 on the road, so there is a shot for them to make this series competitive.
Smith and Morgan agree that moving forward, the Pirates must continue pitching “reasonably well.” Their staff ERA was 3.55, putting them third in the NL at the start of May. Their starting rotation leads the league in quality starts with 18, and they also lead the NL in strikeouts while their bullpen’s ERA of .310 ranks second in the NL.
More importantly, the Pirates are 15-3 when their starters go at least six innings, and that bullpen is preventing them from losing late in games. They’re 18-1 when leading after six innings.
Offensively, the Pirates are not killing teams or blowing them out. Their current run differential is +48, whereas Tampa’s is more than double at +103. The Rays are not only hitting the ball, but their pitchers are preventing the other team from scoring.
Their record of 20-9 puts them 11 games over .500, and the last time that happened was at the end of the 2015 season, which is the last time Pittsburgh made the playoffs.
Plenty of baseball games are left to be played, and anything can happen during the long MLB season, but this team is given the city something to cheer about for the first time in a while, and Pirates fans should be proud of what they’re doing right now.
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