High Seas: Week 4

O, as the Hall of Fame catcher and borderline theologian Yogi Berra once asked, is it “deja vu all over again?”

It’s April in Pittsburgh. We’re caught in that weird week or two in between midterms and Carnival where half the student body seems to be pouring all of their time into move-on and half the student body is pregaming four days early. Those halves have some overlap, leaving a pool of vomit or two smeared across Midway and at least a few Carnegie melons doing nothing at all.

And there are sports! The Steelers, coming off a mediocre season, have completely reshaped their quarterback room, with a youngster and an underwhelming veteran making up the top tandem. The Pirates are off to a sizzlingly hot start, with the best record in baseball on a roster for which such a result doesn’t quite make sense. And the Penguins are embroiled in a full-tilt race for the playoffs, their destiny in their own hands, but are hampered by a brutally sluggish start to the season and Tristan Jarry’s consistency issues in net.

With five games to play, Pittsburgh is holding onto the Eastern Conference’s second wild card by just a point over Detroit, and while we control our own destiny, there are enough tough games — including two massive ones against the Red Wings (Thursday) and the Islanders (in next Wednesday’s season finale) — that my breath is bated.

But writing about hockey is not my job, so let’s talk about baseball.

Much like last year, it’s certainly been one hell of a start for the Pirates. Nine games into the season, we find ourselves 7-2, the best record in the National League and tied, with the Yankees and Guardians, for the best in baseball. These haven’t been fluke wins, either.

The four-game sweep in Miami to open the season, which was nearly complete by the time I penned my column last week, was dominant. Two of the games were close, and went into extras, but the other two — a 7-2 beatdown in which seven Pirates recorded a hit, and a 9-3 demolition on the back of an outstanding debut by starter Jared Jones — were not.

Of course, it’s easy to poo-poo the Miami series. The Marlins are currently 0-9, the only winless team in baseball, and winning four in a row against even the cellar-dwellers is hard. But also note that the two teams to dismantle Miami after the Bucs were the Angels —- currently sitting at 5-3 — and the Cardinals, at 5-4. So where does Miami rank among the bottom of the league? It’s hard to say. A trip to New York on Monday probably won’t help us find out, and a visit from the NL-East-leading Braves will be equally uninformative. Perhaps we’ll learn something when the Giants come to town. Or maybe we won’t, and the Marlins will set a new mark for futility.

But Miami — at 0-9 — has a long way to go before they come anywhere near setting said mark. That mark is currently held by the Baltimore Orioles, who dropped twenty-one in a row in an excruciating slog during April 1988. And the Orioles — who will still hold the record, barring an implosion in South Florida more spectacular than anyone can imagine — are the reason I’m a bit optimistic about this team. Baltimore is 5-3, and we’ve split the first two of a three-game set with them. It’s an Orioles roster with a good amount of talent — a fantastic closer, a few good hitters, and an alright rotation — and in beating them 5-4 in 11 innings on Saturday, Pittsburgh demonstrated dominance on the mound, at the dish, and in the field against a team that is, by all accounts, pretty good.

There’s only really one abject cause for concern so far this year, and that’s David Bednar. In 2023, he cemented himself as one of the best closers in the game, and immediately became a fan favorite. The Mars, Pa. native, who rejected a bottle of champagne after making the All-Star Game in favor of a six-pack of Iron City Light, became a Pittsburgh icon by jogging out a few times a week from the bullpen in deepest center field, under the bright lights and ominous tunes of Styx’s “Renegade.”

Yet this year, in four appearances, Bednar has saved one game while blowing two. Against Baltimore on Saturday in particular, Bednar looked painfully shaky, allowing a few baserunners, advancing them on a wild pitch, and only retiring the side after throwing around 30 pitches and letting the Orioles tie the game. Bednar — who’s recovering from injury — will need to step up his game.

However, that’s speculation. The Pirates could be good, but we don’t know enough to be sure — truth be told, we won’t for a good long while. Last year, as any intrepid Pirates sufferer knows, the Bucs opened the season with a very drawn-out bang, leading the league at 20-8 going into the last day of April. Then, slowly, everything fell apart. The pitching fell apart. The bats fell apart. The team ended up going 76-86, a completely respectable total for a middling team that had won just 62 the previous year and 61 the year before that, but the breakneck pace of April never really replicated itself.

This week, we’ll finish up against the Orioles, play two against the also-surprisingly-good Tigers, and strike out east down the Turnpike for a four-game series against the Phillies.

If the rotation keeps it up, the bullpen doesn’t fall apart, and the Pirates continue to impress at the dish, they could take four or five of these games. If they don’t, well, welcome to Pittsburgh. Get used to it. Go Pens.

This Week’s Results:

Game 4, Sunday – Pirates 9, Marlins 7

Game 5, Monday – Pirates 8, Nationals 4

Game 6, Wednesday – Nationals 5, Pirates 3

Game 7, Thursday – Pirates 7, Nationals 4

Game 8, Friday – Orioles 5, Pirates 2

Game 9, Saturday – Pirates 5, Orioles 4

How The Hunt Looks:

NL Central Standings

Pittsburgh……………. 7-2

Milwaukee…………….. 5-2 (1 back)

Chicago……………….. 5-3 (1.5 back)