Is this the Pirates' Year?

Great game last night.

The Pirates have reached the end of July in an unfamiliar place.  For most of the last two decades, they haven't been above .500 beyond June.  Last year was a promising exception, when they were 16 games over .500 in early August, but that was followed by the most dramatic collapse in the final two months of a season in the history of Major League Baseball, and they finished yet again below .500, extending their streak of losing seasons to 20.

Now, at the end of July, they are 23 games above .500.  Heck, they're 2 games above .600!  They have won the first four games of a five-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals and, in so doing, have taken possession of first place in the National League's Central Division.  This is a match-up of this season's best hitting team (the Cardinals) against the season's best pitching team (the Pirates).  And the old adage - popular with pitchers, at least - is that good pitching beats good hitting.

So where is the dark cloud that might envelop this silver lining?

Well, you could say that the Pirates just happened to catch the Cardinals in a batting slump.  And you could say the real strength of the Pirates' pitching roster is in the bullpen, and it takes some pretty astute managing to make sure games don't get away from you before you go to the relievers.  And you could say all it will take is for the Pirates to hit their own rough patch, and the negative psychology built up over 20 losing seasons will take over, and we will see that, deep down, they still don't believe they are a contender - and they won't be.

But the Bucs have already hit a couple of skids this season and have pulled out of them.  And last night I saw examples of how to use a pitching staff - and a distinct lack of negative psychology.

Starting pitcher Jeff Locke was throwing strikes, but the Cardinals were able to connect, and they got some lucky hits, just out of reach of Pirates infielders who may have been feeling the effects of having played 20 innings the day before.  He gave up 4 runs in 4 innings.  But the Pirates' bats weren't silent, and after the Cardinals' 4th they were down only 2 runs.

Then Vin Mazzaro came in and shut the Redbirds down.  Four innings.  Four zeroes in the Cardinals' scoring line.  Meanwhile, the Pirates hadn't given up.  They kept plugging, getting two more runs in their half of the 4th and 5th innings to tie it up.

What I heard in the stands was promising, too.  There was no murmuring among the fans, no pessimistic predictions that the Pirates seemed to be trying to find a way to lose this game and put a damper on the enthusiasm generated by their sweep of the doubleheader the day before.  Just lots of noise.  The electronic scoreboard signs saying "Make Some Noise" were quite unnecessary.

The Buccos got their go-ahead run in the bottom of the 8th.  And the fans responded.  In every section of the ballpark I could see at least one person standing and waving a large "Jolly Roger" flag.

In the top of the 9th, Mark Melancon, back in his closer role with Jason Grilli on the disabled list, came to the mound from the bullpen to a cacophony of cheers.  And he performed like he was there to show the world that when he comes in with a lead and one inning to pitch, there can be no doubt of victory.

Two decades of losing seasons have made it difficult to be optimistic, especially after last year's August collapse.  But the team I watched last night does not seem to be the same team that crumbled last August.  The tying run in the bottom of the 5th was illustrative.  Starling Marte got a lead-off single.  He bunted.  This man can bunt.  And he has the speed to beat it out for a single.  Then he stole second. More speed.  He moved to third on a ground-out.  Then he scored on a sacrifice fly.  But it didn't look like a sacrifice fly.  It looked like a clean single, and Marte broke for the plate when the ball cleared the infield.  He had to run back to third to tag up, and this ball was not deep in the outfield.  There was no play at the plate.  More speed.  So that was the tying run.  Not the easy kind, like Neil Walker's homer in the third.  But it takes both kinds to win ball games.

And - pssst! - I have some inside information to share.  The Pirates won their division in 1990, 1991, and 1992.  They haven't had a winning season since then. Shortly after the 1992 season ended - in November of that year - my younger daughter, Rose, was born.  And I have teased her, since she was old enough to roll her eyes at me about it, that she is the reason the Pirates have strung together all these losing seasons.  But she has been spending this summer in California!  And she will be here for only a couple of days before returning to college in New England.  The Pirates will never know she's here.  So this is it: this is their year to end the losing streak.

I also have a recommendation.  Across the street from PNC Park is a place called the Beer Market.  It's a BYOF (bring your own food) establishment.  So we had excellent deli-style sandwiches from home and arrived at the Beer Market at 4:30. That gave us a couple of hours for a leisurely dinner before the game.  This place has more than five hundred beers to choose from, and more than five dozen on draft.  If you like variety, you can't beat it.  And you can order "beer flights," choosing anything from the draft menu in 4-ounce "shots," four of them on a little wooden tray.  I took advantage of this to try eight beers that I'd never had before, knowing that I'd have at least four hours afterward (it ended up being 5) for my blood alcohol level to approach zero before I had to drive home.

I am not a sports pundit.  And so no one expects me to make any predictions (or at least not stand by them) with two months to go in the season.  But what I watched last night made me think this will definitely be the year that the Pirates break the losing streak.  And it may well be the year they do what they haven't done since the year before the streak began: win their division.