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Bucco Blasts: Pirates Winning Streak Reaches Five Games

If you read last week’s doom-and-gloom edition of “Bucco Blasts“, you might have a good laugh. I discussed Ke’Bryan Hayes‘ lack of offensive production. He went and hit two big-time home runs for the Pirates this week. Another section discussed the lack of save chances in May for David Bednar. He had four save chances this past week and converted them all. Now, the Pittsburgh Pirates are on a five game winning streak.

The 2023 season has been akin to a roller coaster ride for the ole’ Buccos. The 20-8 start is a distant memory after a completely miserable month of May. However, the Pirates haven’t lost since the calendar flipped to June. Couple that with Kyle Dubas’ hire by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh sports fans have enjoyed a fruitful week.

Oh, and we can’t forget this bit of news that has Pirates fans chomping at the bit, either.

Now Henry Davis and Endy Rodriguez, the Pirates’ top two catching prospects, reside in Triple-A Indianapolis. It is only a matter of time until they graduate to the big league club at a position of need.

There is a lot to discuss from this past week as the Pirates and Brewers are entrenched in a battle for supremacy in the National League Central. Without further ado, let’s look back at this week’s biggest takeaways.

Pirates Winning Streak Reaches Five Games

Pirates’ Bullpen Stronger than Expected

When the Pirates traded longtime middle-infielder Kevin Newman to the Cincinnati Reds for Dauri Moreta, the move felt like a roster trimming type move. The Pirates shed an expendable piece for a bullpen arm that would lump into an otherwise below-average bullpen. Now, it looks like an absolute steal for the Pirates.

Moreta pitched 1 2/3 innings getting out of the sixth and getting a punch out to end the seventh. He picked up his third win of the season in relief. Moreta then entered the game again on Sunday afternoon to get the final out of the seventh inning after starter Rich Hill tossed a 6 2/3 inning masterpiece. Both outings ended with an emphatic strikeout and a sweet pose following both.

Moreta’s season ERA is now at a crisp 1.67 through 27 innings pitched. He’s pitching like a legitimate all-star but as a setup man, it might be unlikely that he’d get recognized. Moreta isn’t the only guy contributing to the bullpen’s surprisingly good season.

Here are the current ERA’s of each member of the Pirates’ bullpen and the amount of innings they’ve tossed.

Only Zastryzny has a ballooned ERA out of that group. They’ve been awesome relieving the starting pitchers who’ve certainly gone longer in games this season than Pirates’ starters did in 2022. Fresh bullpen arms help.

Saturday, the Pirates suffered an hour-long rain delay. They opted to take starter Luis Ortiz out of the game after just two innings upon the games’ resumption. Perdomo was making his MLB-season debut and tossed those 2 1/3 scoreless innings followed directly by De Los Santos to finish it off. Pittsburgh burned through most of their bullpen to finish off the game but got the win in doing so making it all worth it.

The Bucco’s bullpen has been money so far this season and the recent charge has been led by a set-up guy they call “Big Bank” in Moreta.

McCutchen on Brink of Several Milestones

When Andrew McCutchen re-signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the offseason, it just felt like all was right in the world again. There are just some guys who should wear one uniform their entire career. With McCutchen being the centerpiece of the Pirates’ mid-2010’s resurgence, the only team on the back of his baseball card along along should’ve been Pittsburgh. It’s unfortunate that it won’t read that way.

However, what’s done is done. McCutchen is back in the black and gold and is playing right along with his career averages to this point of the season. He should retire a Pirate and should be locked up beyond this season unless his play falls dramatically off of a cliff over the next couple of months.

Over the next few weeks, McCutchen is primed to hit a few notable career milestones. First of all, McCutchen enters play Monday with 1,997 hits, three short of the 2,000 mark. When he reaches that mark, McCutchen will be the fifth active player to reach the benchmark. He’ll join Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Nelson Cruz, and Elvis Andrus in that group. With one more double, McCutchen would reach 400 for his career.

The 36-year old former NL MVP is at 295 home runs on his potential Hall-of-Fame career. Five more gets him into the 300-homer club. 155 other major leaguers have reached that benchmark. McCutchen (295), J.D. Martinez (295), and Anthony Rizzo (294) are all close to breaking into that club. The next few weeks will be full of milestones for Cutch.

Stacking Up Against The Brewers

For the Pirates, contending at any point past May is usually not in question. Well, it is now June and the Pirates reside within a 1/2 game of the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the division. While 31-27 is a winning record, it would be a middling record in most divisions across baseball so the NL Central has been a bit of a crapshoot so far. However, the Brewers and Pirates sweeping their respective in-division opponents this week helped create separation. How do the teams compare?

Run differential is often a good way to see a teams’ true worth. There will be blow outs that go both ways over a 162-game season. Overall, the run differential will tell a good story. Entering Monday, the Brewers have a -19 run differential compared to the Pirates’ +10. The Brewers, however, are 12-12 against teams under .500 on the season. Pittsburgh has a 9-15 record against those teams to this point.

After the hot starts, the Pirates winning even half of their games in May would’ve had them out to a comfortable lead in the standings. That is not the case. However, Pittsburgh’s sweep of the once-hot Cardinals now Pittsburgh and Milwaukee 5 1/2 games above anyone else in the division. There is a lot of baseball to be played but that is a hefty amount of games at any point in the season.

What’s ahead?

Speaking of teams below .500, the Pirates five-game winning streak would figure to be in grave danger as the lowly Oakland Athletics come to PNC Park. The A’s have won just 12 games in 2023 and figure to be lugging through a miserable summer. The Pirates host them Monday-Wednesday. After an off-day Thursday, the Pirates cap off their longest home stand of the season with a weekend set against the New York Mets. The Mets enter play Monday at exactly .500 through the first 60 games of the season and losers of their last three.

The Pirates’ five-game winning streak could reasonably be extended and asking for a 4-2 week doesn’t feel like much of a stretch with the quality of opponent coming to town. Of course, anything more than that and the Pirates could be entering the middle of June with a nice lead in the National League Central.

 

Photo Credit- Scott Galvin- USA TODAY Sports

Players Mentioned: Ke’Bryan Hayes, David Bednar, Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez, Kevin Newman, Dauri Moreta, Jose Hernandez, Colin Holderman, Yohan Ramirez, Rob Zastryzny, Angel Perdomo, Yerry De Los Santos, Luis Ortiz, Andrew McCutchen, Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Nelson Cruz, Elvis Andrus, J.D. Martinez, Anthony Rizzo

Cody Flavell

Cody Flavell

Cody is an avid follower of anything Pittsburgh sports. He spends his off days on the local golf courses around Pittsburgh.

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