Homestands Don’t Get Any Better Than the One the Pirates Just Had

PITTSBURGH — Where to even begin?

The Pittsburgh Pirates just completed a perfect 6-0 homestand in which they outscored two playoff hopefuls in the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals 43-4.

Read that again. 43-4!

“It was unbelievable,” manager Don Kelly said on the homestand. “We’ve talked about continuing to earn it. We’re not there yet. We still have to continue with that mindset, continue to carry this on, and what we did this homestand against two really good teams.”

The Pirates won three decisive games against the New York Mets over the weekend, with final scores of 9-2, 9-1 and 12-1. 

The Pirates blanked the Cardinals 7-0 on Monday night, won a 1-0 game on Tuesday, and extended their winning streak to a season-high six games with a 5-0 win on Wednesday afternoon. 

It marked the third time in franchise history the Pirates had a three-game series in which they didn’t allow a run, and the first since 1976 against the Cardinals.

“Yeah, the starting rotation has been phenomenal. And then the guys in the pen,” said Kelly. “And like we talked about, they did such a great job in such a tough stretch, too.”

Mitch Keller opened the homestand by snapping a personal 10-game losing streak after he held the Mets to one run in 5.1 innings on Friday. 

He was even better in the finale in Wednesday’s win, when he blanked the Cardinals across seven innings and struck out seven.

“Yeah, the guys have been rolling at the plate and in the field,” Keller said after getting his third win of the season. “Just going out there and trying to do the best I can and give us a chance to win.”

But the pitching wasn’t the only reason the Pirates dominated their homestand. Pittsburgh played its cleanest and best baseball of the season.

The defense committed just one error during the homestand, and was responsible for saving multiple runs, including the potential tying run in the ninth inning on Tuesday night.

Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the latest to make a run-saving web-gem, when he robbed Thomas Saggesse of an RBI single in the third inning on Wednesday.

“Just going off the momentum,” he said on the play. “Everybody’s making big plays. I’ve got to watch [Ke’Bryan Hayes], probably one of the best fielders I’ve ever played with. If he can’t get to it, I’ll try to be as close as I can behind him. I think we’re just feeding off everyone’s energies. We’re getting great jumps on defense.”

While the Pirates have played good defense and received good pitching for much of the season, the offense finally came alive with an average of 7.2 runs and 10.5 hits per game on the homestand. 

The Pirates’ received contributions from up and down the lineup throughout the series and came through with timely hitting. That’s the recipe for success for a team that won’t out-slug whoever they’re up against. 

They will look to keep that offense going when they hit the road for nine games before the All-Star break, starting with a game against the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.

“It’s just, how do we continue to have those types of at-bats with guys on base, move the ball forward and try to find a way to drive in some runs?,” pondered Kelly. 

But before looking ahead, the Pirates can reflect on a dominant homestand on their flight across the country.

“It was special,” said Kiner-Falefa. “On paper, you’re looking at these games like trying to win a couple games then going out there and really dominating. That’s the biggest thing, these aren’t just wins. These are dominating wins. It’s nice. You build off the confidence of domination of home. It’s hard not to feed off that.”

The Pirates…

• Completed a homestand with a record of 6-0 or better for the first time since going 7-0 from June 28-July 4, 2004, when they swept a three-game series vs. St. Louis (June 28-30) and a four-game series vs. Milwaukee (July 2-4).
• Have pitched a shutout in three consecutive games for the first time since June 14-16, 2015.
• Have allowed two runs or fewer in all six games during their current winning streak, their longest streak of allowing two runs or fewer in a game since another six-game streak from May 22-27, 2015, a streak in which they also won all six games 
• Have outscored opponents, 43-4, during their six-game winning streak. They are the only Major League team since at least 1901 to score 43 or more runs and allow four or fewer runs over any six-game span. Their +39 run differential is their best over any six-game span since September 15 (game one of a doubleheader)-19, 1975, when they had a +40 run differential (53-13).
• Have not allowed a run over their last 31 innings since Mike Burrows gave up a solo home run in the fifth inning of Sunday’s win against the Mets.