It was a rough a week to be a Pirates fan, and I suppose I have to swallow my optimism from previous weeks because in all honesty, they looked bad this week as they finished up a 2-5 road trip by dropping the finale in Arlington followed by dropping 3 of 4 to the Miami Marlins. Wrapping up the week, they split the first with the Angels thanks to another solid outing by Jeff Locke (I never thought I would say those words).

Granted, we did run into the young stud, José Fernandez, in one of the games against the Marlins, and four Pirates were injured and had to leave the finale against Miami. In that 12 inning game they only managed one run in six innings against a Miami bullpen that's average at best. Also, it is unacceptable that Fransisco Liriano only manages to stay in the opener against the Angels for 3.1 innings, giving up six earned runs in the process. However Franky and the staff aren't entirely to blame for our recent struggles because the Pirates were only able to muster 10 runs in the 5 losses this week. They won't win many games at that rate, and one can only expect so much out of the pitching staff. To put the cherry on top of a miserable week, we now sit 9.5 games back of the Cubs, clinging to a Wild Card spot even though it's still early to be thinking that way. The way the Cubs are playing right now leads me to think that their lead in the division is insurmountable.

Well I just handed you plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the Pirates chances the rest of the way, so now let's look at this glass half full, shall we? Gerrit Cole's 2.72 ERA and low strikeout numbers as of June 4th are no where near his potential and where he will be by the middle of the season, so I expect several long, dominating starts in the coming future to help give the bullpen a rest. The rest of the staff has been a bit shaky, but there are two young studs in AAA, Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow, itching to have their names called. Both have been mowing down hitters this season and look more than ready to give a timely boost to a struggling staff.

Despite the recent skid, the 2016 Pirates have a higher batting average (.276) than the 2015 Pirates (.260). Through 54 games, they are also on pace to score about 100 more runs than last year, too (795 to 697). This comes after an offseason in which they parted ways with two vital offensive contributors, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez. The Pirates certainly haven't been able to make up that loss with just two players, but John Jaso and Sean Rodriguez are playing out of their minds, having career-best years. They have filled in well offensively. I also can't mention those two without mentioning another offseason acquisition, David Freese, who hasn't been his World Series MVP self but has been producing on a nightly basis even since he lost his everyday job to the return of Jung Ho Kang. This gives the Pirates plenty reason to be optimistic despite a daunting schedule that awaits them these next couple weeks.