Pirates Power Rankings: Buccos Remain Afloat in Wild Card Race

The Pirates played to another week of .500 baseball, dropping a series against their NL Central rival St. Louis Cardinals—who currently sit 1.5 games ahead of them for the second Wild Card spot—before taking two of three from the miserable Colorado Rockies.

The NL Wild Card race remains wide open, a dog fight or laughingstock depending on how one wants to spin it, so the Pirates only dropped half a game in their bid for the last playoff spot.

Losing a series to a divisional rival hurts, though, especially one where the margin of victory ended up as just two runs across three games. As such, the Buccos took a hit in most power rankings for their inability to assert themselves. Here’s a look at how they fared.

• MLB.com dropped the Pirates two spots to No. 23, but praised elder statesman Andrew McCutchen for his torrid stretch.
• CBS Sports demoted the Pirates to No. 22, hyping up the brewing rookie of the year race between Paul Skenes and Cubs’ ace Shōta Imanaga.
• Bleacher Report gave Skenes All-Star Game hype, but that didn’t stop them from bumping the Pirates from No. 17 to No. 21.
• Pittsburgh remained steady at No. 23 in USA Today’s assessment, which poked fun at Rowdy Tellez for his miserable OPS despite recent improvements at the plate.
• Fox Sports, which only ranks the top ten teams, unsurprisingly held the Pirates out of the mix.