Take Five

It took 139 games and more than five months, but for one day at least the Pirates no longer have the worst record in the National League. With last night's ninth-inning victory over the increasingly hapless Chicago Cubs, the Bucs are 56-83, good for fifth place, if only by a slender one-half game. The teams have the same number of losses. Call this "race" tortoise vs. tortoise.

So two cheers for the Pirates, one for catching the Cubs, and one for doing it by playing north of .500 since the All-Star break. To quote E.M. Forster,

"Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three."

The Pirates can primarily thank Jason Bay (two homers and four RBIs) and the bullpen (one unearned run in 5 2/3 inning in relief of Victor "Deadwood" Santos), but should also give a tip of the hat to Cubs "closer" Ryan Dumpster, er, Dempster, who threw two wild pitches in the ninth, the second of which brought in the winning run. Dempster, now 1-8, walked in the winning run last week in Pittsburgh. With friends like this, does Dusty Baker need any enemies? (Not that those are in short supply in any event in Chicago these days.)

The five-game winning streak against Chicago that has enabled the Pirates to climb out of the basement is not altogether surprising given the Cubs' rash of injuries and the pervasive pall that has enveloped the club. However, the Pirates had played poorly against the Cubs over the previous five-plus years leading up to the turnaround (36-59, including a combined 10-24 in 2004 and 2005). Even this year, they were 3-5 against the Cubs until the last two series the clubs have played.

Resident Genius Jim Tracy was blessedly low-key about the cellar exit, choosing to emphasize that the team has played three games above .500 in the 49 games since the All-Star game. Still, it's hard, in the Buccin' Ear's view, to get too excited about that either, because the Pirates' play is just too spotty. The starting pitching, which was pretty bad in the first half, has shown glimmers of improvement, but collectively they still hit rough patches (e.g., 14 earned runs in the past 13+ innings), and individually they are still plagued by persistent weaknesses such as Paul Maholm's and Zach Duke's unending early-inning woes and Ian Snell's penchant for giving up the long ball.

Offensively, the team is usually shut down by good pitching. The two recent outings against Carlos Zambrano, which produced a combined 10 runs, don't count. Zambrano hurt himself with two errors in the first one, and he was just plain hurt in the second. Xavier Nady has provided some help recently, but the team is still far too dependent on Jason Bay and Freddie Sanchez. As we saw in St. Louis last week, when Bay has a bad series, the Pirates normally don't score much, if at all. Chris Duffy, Jose Bautista and Jose Castillo have yet to develop consistency. Ronnie Paulino has been a plus in hitting for average, but he doesn't hit for power.

The bench? Well, let's just say Ryan Doumit and Humberto Cota and leave it at that (with a minor apology to Cota because of his two pinch hits the past week). Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Randa don't play into the discussion because they're not part of the team's plans. Nate McLouth is injured, and hasn't exactly had a stellar year anyway.

And one key stat that has bugged the Buccin' Ear for some time continues to be a sore spot: the strikeout-walk ratio. The '06 Pirates have struck out 1,001 times while drawing a mere 396 walks. That's close to three Ks for every BB. Terrible.

Flip side: Pirate pitchers have struck out 920 hitters while issuing 543 walks. That's a ratio of about 1.7:1. It doesn't take a genius to understand the advantage that opposing teams have had over the Pirates in this category. RG goes on and on about how close the team is to being a contender. If that is indeed the case, then it seems obvious that this disparity needs to be narrowed.

The Buccin' Ear is no batting coach, but one would think that somebody who is would tell these guys to shorten up a little bit, particularly with two strikes. It's annoying to watch them flail away (and they're nearly all guility of this), regardless of the count or what the pitcher is throwing.

Note to Bucco hitters: "Cutting down on your swinging" isn't what you do after your girlfriend finds your Little Black Book.

Well, enough raining on RG's parade. The team is doing really well. Just ask him.

The 1985 Watch: Get ready to pop the champagne. On September 6, the '85 squad lost to the Houston Astros, 4-3 in 10 innings, to drop to 42-90. With a commanding 10 1/2 game lead over their '80s-era counterparts, the 56-83 '06 Pirates need just two wins to avoid becoming the fifth-worst team in club history. That would take a total coll...never mind.

Pirates Past: On September 6, 1973, the Pirates fired manager Bill Virdon following a 5-3 loss to the Cardinals that brought their record to a disappointing 67-69. Danny Murtaugh, taking on a fourth tour of duty as Buc manager, replaced Virdon, but the move didn't help. The team went 13-13 the rest of the way to finish in third place in the NL East at 80-82. It was the only time in the '70s that the Pirates finished lower than second in the division or had a losing record.

The season was also played without Roberto Clemente, who had died in a plane crash over the off season while attempting to aid earthquake victims in Nicaragua. The Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia calls Opening Day, April 6, 1973, the third-most disappointing game in Pirates history:

"There have been 116 opening days in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates [Note: through 2002]; none were less anticipated or more painful than the one that opened up the 1973 campaign.

"Yes, the Pirates won the game 7-5, coming back dramatically over Bob Gibson from a 5-0 deficit, but sometimes a disheartening game goes beyond the line score. The contest was the first the team played wihtout their beloved leader, Roberto Clemente."