It was a great week to be a Pirates fan. The Bucs started off the week by taking the series finale, 6-3, over the Colorado Rockies. They then proceeded to sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks by scores of 12-1, 5-4, and 8-3 to finish their ten game home stand with an 8-2 mark, which is more of what I would expect from this ball club. They then follow up a perfect 4-0 start to the week to split the first two games against the Rangers with the one loss coming against Yu Darvish and his first regular season start this year, so it would be pretty difficult to be upset with the way the Pirates played this week.
The theme this week, and the reason they managed to get all those wins, was hot bats and bend-don't-break pitching. The pitching staff hasn't regained the dominance they achieved last year in part to some offseason departures like J.A. Happ and what seems to be the law of averages. The bullpen pitched out of its mind last year, and it would be unrealistic to expect an equally dominant year from those guys. The starting rotation, outside of Gerrit Cole, has been mediocre at best, but more often than not, they have given the offense a chance to win the game. As it turns out, that has been more than enough for a team that has been hitting over .300 since May 15th and driving in runs at a blistering rate.
Last year, if you would have told me that there would be zero holes in our lineup, I would have thought you were crazy. The renaissance of Sean Rodriguez and John Jaso, however, has led me to believe we can compete for the division crown this year with the Cubs. It's not just them though. Gregory Polanco has been red hot at the plate (1 HR and 7 RBIs during the Diamondbacks series) lately and is hitting over .300 on the year. This is a drastic improvement over last April and May in which he struggled miserably. 2016 is a new year for the rising superstar however, and since we last saw him in the fall, he has grown into his 6'5" frame and showing signs of his undeveloped power finally peeking through.
Next week looks to a more difficult one for the Bucs as they finish their three game series with the Rangers, then travel to Miami for a four game series against a club who has some solid pitching this year and will play hard every game. They finish the week and head into the weekend starting a series with the Angels and the always potent Mike Trout. Hopefully they can carry their momentum into next week and win another five games or so because the Cubs are pretty much matching the Pirates win for win every day. It might not even be June yet, but this division race is shaping up to be a thrilling one.