Pirates struggling against NL Central
The Pirates are just 21-29 against fellow National League Central team this season.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. The Pirates have struggled inside the NL Central ever since the start of the 1994 season when they moved into the newly-created division from the NL East as Major League Baseball went to a six-division format.
The Pirates have had exactly one winning season against NL Central foes in over two decades.
One.
That came in 2013 when they went 45-31 on their way to finishing 94-68 and breaking a streak of 20 consecutive losing seasons, the longest in major North American professional sports history.
Though the Pirates made a return trip to the postseason last season, they did so in despite having a 36-40 record inside the division.
In all, the Pirates are 669-854 in the NL Central play for a .439 winning percentage. Over a 162-game season that would work out to a 71-91 record.
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PNC Park is just one of three current major league venues in which no player has hit 20 home runs in a season. The others are Petco Park in San Diego and the New York Mets’ Citi Field.
The PNC Park record is 18 by Brian Giles in 2001, the year the facility opened and a season in which the outfielder had a total of 37 homers.
The single-season franchise record for home runs at home is 31 by Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner in 1948 at Forbes Field during a season in which he hit 40 overall.
Center fielder Andrew McCutchen leads the Pirates with 10 home homers this season.
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Right-hander Gerrit Cole has 14 wins this season and, for that, he should considered sending a thank you note to closer Mark Melancon.
Melancon had a major league-high 36 saves coming into the weekend and 12 were in games won by Cole.
Melancon had saves for 13 different winning pitchers, including Charlie Morton (five), A.J. Burnett (three), Jeff Locke (three), Francisco Liriano (two), Rob Scahill (two), Tony Watson (two), Vance Worley (two), Antonio Bastardo (one), Joe Blanton (one), Arquimedes Caminero (one), Jared Hughes (one) and Radhames Liz (one).