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PITTSBURGH – In the Pirates’ current six-game winning streak, the offense has put up 35 runs. More important, the pitching staff has only surrendered nine runs during that span.
“We pitch it first,” said Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle. “You’re not going to go anywhere if you can’t pitch it. We have guys that can pitch it and we have guys that can back them up.”
Pirates starters have gone at least 5 2/3 innings in the past six wins and relief pitchers have only given up a total of two runs in 13 innings of work.
“I try to go over it the same way each time,” said reliever Arquimedes Caminero, who threw two shutout innings in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Miami Marlins. “I help the team any way they need me to. It’s always good to pitch when you’re winning. It doesn’t matter if it is the fifth, sixth or seventh inning, I just want to pitch and it helps when you’re winning.”
Pittsburgh is coming off back-to-back series sweeps as it out-dueled the up-and-coming New York Mets over the weekend and clawed back to topple the Marlins the past three days. In six of the past nine games, the Pirates have scored first. Wednesday, a 5-2 win, was the team’s first all season when trailing by the sixth inning.
The inconsistent offense, which is 17th in the majors with a .250 batting average and 18th with a .308 on-base percentage, has come around to provide ample run support to a pitching staff that is now ranked second in team earned run average at 3.01.
“Things weren’t going great for us early on,” said second baseman Neil Walker. “We were either hitting and not pitching or pitching and not hitting. When guys go out there early on and are throwing up zeroes, especially at home, we feel like if we can give them a few runs to work with, it can go a long way. That’s been the case the last couple of days.”
In May, the Pirates wilted through five-game and four-game losing streaks. On May 20, they were 18-22 following two-straight losses to the Minnesota Twins. Since then, the Pirates are the hottest team in baseball.
“This stretch of ball we’re playing is the best we’ve had all season,” said starting pitcher Jeff Locke. “Everything is better when you win. Everybody is picking up on stuff that you probably wouldn’t even notice if we were losing.
“Everybody wants to keep this going as long as we can. The clubhouse now is in a great place.”
But the Pirates must now abandon their plush 18,000-square foot locker room and head out for a 10-game road trip that begins tonight in San Diego. Pittsburgh plays four games against the Padres, before heading north to take on the San Francisco Giants. Then, the team returns east to wrap up the trip against the Atlanta Braves.
“The way we’ve played it’s easy to get the ball rolling when you feel that the pitchers are going to get effective outs and we’re going to score runs early,” Walker said. That makes everyone’s job easier. Momentum is very key as we head out west.”
A.J. Burnett, searching for his fifth-straight victory, takes the hill tonight. The 38-year-old leads the MLB with a 1.37 ERA. Gerrit Cole, who pitched seven innings for the win on Wednesday, is 11th in the majors with a 2.11 ERA and seventh with 70 strikeouts.
Francisco Liriano overcame a disastrous outing against the Twins on May 19 where he lasted just two innings and allowed seven runs with a 12-strikeout performance against the Mets on Sunday.
Charlie Morton returned to the starting rotation on Monday after sitting out the start of the season due to injury. Morton went seven innings, striking out three and inducing 16 groundouts.
Locke was a candidate for bullpen duty upon Morton’s return. Instead, the long reliever role went to Vance Worley. Locke showed he should remain in the rotation with two-straight solid outings. He’ll pitch again on Sunday in San Diego.
“He kept them off the plate,” Hurdle said of Locke’s arsenal against the Marlins, where he struck out six and allowed just one run in 5 2/3 innings. “Keeping them off the plate is always a good thing. He had command and made pitches when he had to. Nothing got away from him. All the pitches played at different times.”
As the Pirates roll continues, they still remain six games behind the Central Division- leading St. Louis Cardinals, who have won four games in a row.