PITTSBURGH — Adam Frazier had not yet walked off against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday when Pirates general manager Neal Huntington addressed the implications the upcoming four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers would have on his trade-deadline strategy.
“Obviously an 0-4 changes the dynamic pretty significantly,” Huntington said. “We go 4-0, it changes the dynamic in a much more positive direction.”
They went 4-0.
After winning 4-2 at PNC Park Thursday afternoon, the Pirates trail the Brewers by only three games in the National League Central. They returned to .500 (48-48) for the first time since April 16, when they were 6-6.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s good to be .500,” said Chris Stewart, who went 3 for 3 and threw out a runner attempting to steal. “It’s good to be playing good baseball, the way we’ve been playing. We feel like we’re doing what we’re finally capable of doing.”
Including their 6-1 homestand against the Cardinals and Brewers, the Pirates have won 11 of their past 13 games. They will attempt to take that momentum west on a nine-game, three-city road trip, which includes six games against the fourth-place San Diego Padres and the last-place San Francisco Giants.
“Winning’s a lot of fun,” said Wade LeBlanc, who preserved the two-run lead in the sixth. “It carries over. Chemistry’s great, the morale’s great. Just try to keep it going.”
Those nine games are the last the Pirates will play before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, around which the external narrative has assumed yet another iteration.
“I don’t care about the trade deadline,” Andrew McCutchen said. “I just care about winning.”
Those within the industry have said in recent weeks the Pirates would hold their cards up until the deadline, preparing to buy, sell or do a little of both as their own play and that of the rest of the division clarified. Now in the calculus is a resurgent Chicago Cubs team that won six in a row out of the break and, with a two-game lead on the third-place Pirates, trails the Brewers by one game.
“We’re fine. We’re still in first place,” Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson said. “You’re not going to win every single game. You’re not going to win every single series all season. There’s a lot of games left to be played, and we know what we’re capable of.”
Stewart had played in only three games this month and not at all since subbing in behind the plate in the eighth inning the final game of the first half July 9. He stays sharp by catching bullpen sessions and hitting off pitching machines with the velocity cranked.
“I felt really good, felt like I got back to what I’ve been doing in the past when I was successful,” he said.
The Pirates’ first run scored when Frazier stole second after a single. Stewart flared a ball into right field to drive in Frazier. After Gregory Polanco’s ninth home run of the season tied the game in the fourth, third-base coach Joey Cora sent Stewart from second on Josh Harrison’s single to shallow right the following inning.
“We’ve tried to, in certain instances and situations, press the (Brewers) defense,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said before the game. “And it’s more the throwing mechanism than it is the glove mechanism.”
Jameson Taillon (6-3) struck out eight batters and allowed two runs but needed a career-high 116 pitches to complete 51/3 innings. He has pitched fewer than six innings in eight of his past 10 starts and hasn’t gone seven since April 16.
LeBlanc, Daniel Hudson, Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero pitched 32/3 scoreless innings, and Rivero saved his ninth game.
“I think we’re coming together,” Rivero said. “I think that’s why the chemistry in the bullpen is getting together, and in (the clubhouse), and the dugout. That’s why we’re winning games.”