The Pittsburgh Pirates have the best record in baseball at the midway point of the season and have a two game lead on the Cardinals for first in the NL Central…….Let that sink in for a moment. The Pirates, at 51 – 30, are also the first team in franchise history to reach 50+ wins before July 1st. The only other team to come close to that feat was the 1971 World Champions, who reached that feat on July 1st and finished with 97 wins that season.
What this also means is that this team has set itself up for a run at the playoffs. Yes, it may only be 81 games into the season, but history has told that there’s a pretty solid chance that they will make it.
Since 1996 (The first full 162-game season post-strike), only two teams have missed the playoffs after being tied/alone with the best record in baseball (2002 & 2003 Mariners). Those teams finished with a record of 93 – 69. Only one other team with the best record at the break finished with that record, last year’s Texas Rangers, who reached the postseason via the Wild Card play-in game and lost to the Orioles.
Another record worth noting on this subject is that a decent number of those teams finished with 95 wins. That number was the amount of wins that Clint Hurdle said would get the Pirates to the postseason, based off of previous years.
It doesn’t always pay off to have the best record at this time, though. Only six teams in that span have reached the World Series with three only winning it all, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves on that subject just yet.
This team is built for a stretch run. It’s not just Andrew McCutchen that’s providing the offense like last season. Pedro has played his best month of baseball in his career and looks like he’s finally dialed in to some extent. The bench is providing and Russell Martin has become the savior at catcher.
The pitching is fully stocked and producing, even if it’s statistically supposed to come back to earth sooner or later. .500 shouldn’t be the goal anymore, which will happen. Bigger and better things may be on the horizon.
Soak it in, Pirates fans. You’ve been waiting a long time for this and you all deserve it.
Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game information on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @ovathletics
(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
