Can I admit something? Every day that goes by, I like this Pirate team a little bit more, even if it’s for reasons that I know that I shouldn’t as a Sabermetrically-Minded Blogger That’s Getting a Postgraduate Degree in Something Other than Journalism. (SMBTGPDSOJ; is that a thing? We might need a better acronym.)
Monday’s game is a great example. Before the game started, I would’ve said something like this to anyone that cared to ask: “In order for the Pirates to win a game like this against the Mets without Andrew McCutchen in the lineup, someone like Brandon Wood is going to have to come through with a big hit, Paul Maholm is going to have to be practically unhittable, and some ridiculously afterthought of a reliever like Tim Wood is going to have to get big outs to bridge the way from Maholm to Joel Hanrahan. Unless that ridiculous sequence of events happens, the Pirates will lose tonight.”
But then it went out and happened anyway. Maholm turned in another great start, Tim Wood bailed the club out of Jose Veras’s jam, Brandon Wood came through with a big homer, and the Pirates a won a game without their best player even when it seemed like they had no right to do so. We’ve all been holding June up like it’s the be all and end all for this club and we’re 13 days into the month and the Pirates are 7-5, even though they’ve been nowhere near full-strength the entire month. Last year’s club only won six games in the entirety of June, they only won nine games in July, and they only won eight games in August.
I can’t find a logical way to quantify wins like this one and I know that I’ve talked myself into Pirate teams of the past being something that they weren’t. Still, we’re heading towards the halfway point of the season and most of the surprises this Pirate team has had for me have been pleasant. I think that’s something, even if I’m not sure what that something is.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
