Things Are Beginning To Look Up for the Pittsburgh Pirates

After two mid-year losing streaks, the Pittsburgh Pirates will have a record-setting 17th straight losing year in 2009. But they seem to be out of their mid-summer slump. And they have made some progress in the past year. The sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers at home was encouraging. And Ross Ohlendorf and Paul Maholm (and their relievers) limited the Brewers to three runs in two games. Only rookie Kevin Hart got off to a bad start, with a two run sixth inning after giving up only two runs in the first five. but Pirate bats were able to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. A winning series against Cincinnati, which lost two of their last three, would be most encouraging. Cincinnati is 3-2 so far against the Pirates, having won all three by shut outs. But the Pirates will have a different set of batters including Garrett Jones and Andrew Morton that can outhit the light-hitting Reds. And the Pirates dominate Cincinnati sabermetrically, having scored 13 more runs, and allowed 11 fewer on ...