Pirates had great success during interleague play in 2018

Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a sweep of the visiting Royals and concluded interleague play for the 2018 season.

That turns out to be bad news for the Bucs as they dominated their American League counterparts this season.

Overall the Bucs posted a 15-5 record during interleague play, which was the best mark in the National League and second best in all of baseball, just behind the Boston Red Sox 16-4 mark.

It also marked the first time since 2015 the Pirates had a winning record in interleague play and gave them their best record vs. the AL since going 15-5 in 2013.

So what was the reason behind the success against the AL?

To be honest it was a soft schedule, featuring matchups with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and the Royals.

Secondly, to my surprise, it was the offense and not the pitching staff that led to the success.

During interleague play, the Pirates offense posted a .284/.352/.446 line. That ranked them first in batting average, third in OBP and fourth in slugging in the National League.

Who feasted off American League pitching the most?

One of the biggest benefactors was Colin Moran.

The rookie third baseman posted a .281/.323/.561 line vs. the AL and led the Pirates in homers (four) and RBI’s (16). Four of Moran’s 10 homers on the season came during interleague play.

Gregory Polanco also did well against the AL with three homers and 15 driven in. Josh Bell also had success vs. the American League, driving in 15 runs.

Others who stuck out included Elias Diaz (.414/.514/.586) and Starling Marte (.388/.446/.582).

The pitching wasn’t as good as the Pirates 4.00 ERA ranked them 10^th in ERA among National League teams vs. the AL.

Trevor Williams was the Bucs best pitcher during interleague play, going 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA.

Surprisingly Jameson Taillon went just 1-3 vs. the AL with a 4.15 ERA.

Joe Musgrove had a 4.85 ERA and Ivan Nova a 5.31 ERA.

All of this really means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but given the Pirates up and down season, it was nice to see them have some success against the American League this season, which has not always happened.