Sunday, July 15, 2012

Learning How to Live with the Ups and Downs of a Good Pirates Season

It could almost have been expected. Every Pirates fan was walking around on Cloud 9 for almost an entire week during the recent All-Star break. The Pirates went into the break 11 games over .500 at 48-37 and in first place in the National League Central Division.

With Andrew McCutchen and his Triple Crown-like numbers leading the way, the Pirates were one of the hottest teams in baseball since May 12th with a 34-19 record. Instead of wondering when the annual fire sale would begin like in years past, the biggest concern among Pirates' faithful during the break was whether or not it would be a good idea to acquire outfielder Justin Upton from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

I know I was extremely excited and couldn't wait for the Pirates to start the second half this weekend in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, my excitement, and that of thousands of other Bucco fans, was quieted a bit when the Brewers took two of three from the Pirates over the weekend.

The pitching struggled, with the Brewers racking up a combined 33 hits and scoring 18 runs in the three game series. Not only that, but the defense was pretty atrocious, committing an error in all three games.

And as for the hitting side of things. Things weren't as bad, even though the hitters continued to rack of the strike-outs. McCutchen continued his torrid pace by smacking a home run in every game of the series. Unfortunately, his home run in today's game turned out to be the only run the team would score in the 4-1 defeat.

No, it wasn't a good weekend, and yes, maybe there are some things to be concerned about--McDonald and Burnett were the pitchers of record in both losses--but losing two of three in Milwaukee is nothing to be too alarmed about.

The Brewers did struggle in the first half, but they certainly are a talented baseball team--they swept a series from the Dodgers in Los Angeles earlier in the year. They are more than capable of playing good baseball in the second half and throwing their hats into the ring of contenders in the Central.

The Pirates have a series coming up in Colorado against the lowly Rockies starting tomorrow night. The one encouraging thing about the 2012 version of the Pirates has been their ability to consistently beat the struggling teams on their schedule.

If the Pirates can take care of business in Colorado, they'll then come home to face a talented but struggling Marlins team, followed by 10-straight games against the Cubs and Astros.

I've been saying all along that this Pirates team is different than the 2011 version that fell apart down the stretch. And, so far, they've proven it. After being swept by the Orioles in mid June, they bounced back and took two of three in Cleveland. And then after losing three games in a row in late June, they bounced back to take the last two games of the Phillies series and then the first two games in St. Louis.

I'm fairly confident that the Pirates will take advantage of the road that's ahead of them in the very near future. If they do that, and make this just concluded series in Milwaukee a distant memory, I think that will forever silence the fears of a second-half collapse.

As a fan who isn't used to dealing with a good Pirates team, I just have to learn how to take the bad with the good. Unlike the bad Pirates teams from the past, the good far out weighs the bad in 2012.

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