May Baseball

As May ends, my teams are diverging.  After a series of improbable victories, climaxed by the first inside the park home run ever to win a game in San Francisco, the Giants are stumbling.  Some key injuries are hurting them (including to Angel Pagan, who hit that homer and hasn't played since) but they are really struggling away from their home field. That could prove fatal to their season--because with those injuries, they spend most of the month of June on the road.

Still, at just a couple of games above .500, they're in second place in their division.  While the Giants reel, the Pittsburgh Pirates rock.  They are 13 games above .500--but in their division that's good enough only for second or third place.

For the past several years, the Pirates have had a run of wins and spectacular play, especially in the first part of the season.  And then every year, they've collapsed just as spectacularly.  That it might not happen this year is suggested by the ways they've been winning--which is every way.  They're winning with early offense, and with come from behind.  They're winning with starting pitching, and especially relief pitching.  If their winning ways continue, analysts may point to Tuesday night's game as the tip-off.  They won 1-0 in the 11th inning over the Detroit Tigers, a formidable team (managed by the guy who managed the last great Pirates teams, Jim Leyland.) That kind of win suggests a solid team. Then Wednesday they beat the Tigers again, surprising them with a flurry of late offense, 5-3. Update: Then they did it again--once again in the same series, the Pirates beat the Tigers 1-0 in the 11th inning. The Pirates could finally be for real this year.