By Blaidd Drwg
We are twenty six games into the season and the Pittsburgh Pirates have been outscored by 88 runs. Why is that news you ask? The Pirates are obviously the worst team in baseball you say. Well, it is news worthy because the Pirates record currently somehow stands at 11-15. Based on their run differential they should be a truly awful 5-21.
Currently, there are only 2 teams in baseball who are more than 2 games +/- between their expected record and their actual records based on runs – the Colorado Rockies who are 3 wins worse than their expected record and the Pirates who are 6 wins better.
How the heck are they doing it? If you remember earlier in the year, I posted about the luck the Mariners had last season winning 35 1 run games. Well, that is the Pirates this year – they are currently 6-1 in one run games, 5-14 in all others. I have absolutely no explanation for this, but if you back out the +5 runs the Pirates have gained in those 5 games, they are -93 run differential for 19 games – which means that they have lost by a 4.9 runs a game. They have a team ERA of 6.60 and no starter with an ERA under 5. I guess that is what happens when you give up 10 runs in a game 5 times in 26 games.
FlatbreadGarden 