Pirates 8.5 game lead in the National League wild card standings is nothing to sneeze at

With their 9-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners, Tuesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates improved to 47-30. It marks the first time since 1992 that the club is 17 games over .500 during the regular season. It's certainly a nice milestone, but more importantly, Tuesday night's win, combined with the loss of the Giants in Los Angeles, gave the Pirates an 8.5 game lead in the National League Wild Card standings.

I realize Pittsburgh is still in second place in the National League Central division, but that's a HUGE lead, even this early in the season. 

In my opinion, if the Pirates had this kind of lead in the Central division, we would be going nuts and wondering if the club could maintain the lead the rest of the way.

I know, unlike in a division fight, Pittsburgh has many more teams to deal with in order to secure at least one of the wild card berths--the Padres, Rockies, Giants and Nationals are all no more than 6.5 games back of the Reds for the second wild card spot, and Cincinnati is 2.5 games behind the Pirates for the top spot--but an 8.5 game lead is still pretty decent, even for June 26th.

If it wasn't for the 20 consecutive years of losing, I believe we'd be making more out of, not only the Pirates' current record, but of their lead in the Wild Card standings.

I don't know about you, but I'd sign my name in blood, right now, for a spot in the Wild Card play-in game.