It has been over twenty years since the Pirates have had a final record of above .500.  The last two years however have given hope to Pirates fans across the nation.  Both years the Pirates started off the season strong and led the division up until the All-Star break.  After the All-Star break the Pirates started to go on long losing streaks and missed a winning season.

This year started off with high hopes from fans because of the success from the past two years.  Those hopes were quickly crushed as the Pirates started off the season with only one win in the first five games.

The pitching was doing pretty well, only letting up very few runs in each game.

Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the game there was very little productivity that was going on.  Most of the early games the Pirates scored no runs, or if they were able to score runs it was only one or two.

With a low scoring offense it made it almost impossible to win.

However, the Pirates switched things up in the lineup and the offense started to click.  The offense picked up speed every game with Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte are consistently leading the offense with several home runs and each of them are hitting around .300.

The pitching for the Pirates continued to be very impressive, especially AJ Burnett.

On Wednesday April 17, the Pirates were matched up against the Saint Louis Cardinals.  AJ Burnett went through 8 innings of this game pitching incredibly well and not letting up a single hit.  Finally his chance of a no hitter was ended with a double in the 8th inning.   He almost pulled a no hitter for the second time in his career.

With the combination of the better hitting and consistent pitching the Pirates started a winning streak.  Now the Pirates are at 7 – 8 and are third in the National League Central division.