The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the week at 11-5, going 3-3 over a rollercoaster type week. The Pirates were unable to go on a streak alternating between winning and losing every other game. The week was capped beautifully as Andrew McCutchen hit his 300th homerun in the 9th inning of the Sunday game against the Phillies. Which was a far better way to end the week compared to how they ended the homestand. Which was a blown two run lead in the top of the ninth that lead to a two-run loss. However, David Bednar has rebounded nicely from that outing, so only positive vibes moving into the new week.

In this weekly recap, we will look at each of the three major categories—Offense, Pitching, and Defense—and grade how the Pirates played.

Offense:
The Pirates scored 28 runs this week, which is the same amount as the week before. Anderw McCutchen and Jack Suwinski both hit homers on Sunday, if they can get hot that would be a big boost for the Pirates. Edward Olivares was the offensive standout this week, going 5/15 with 2 home runs. Henry Davis was also solid at the plate this week going 4/13 with a double. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo also had solid weeks at the plate. Michael A. Taylor and Connor Joe have cooled a bit but it is early in the season, and for Taylor he did not get a lot of reps in spring training. The biggest issue with the Pirates offense remains the fact they are patient to a fault in the box. There have been a lot of good walks drawn by the Pirates, but that level of chill has also led to bad takes in the strike zone. They will need to do better at getting the bats off their shoulders moving forward else it could become more of an issue.

Pitching:
Jared Jones continues to be very impressive. He did take the L in his start and give up a pair of wall scraping homeruns. But no walks and eight strikeouts with a lot of swing and miss stuff makes him a cant miss starter to watch for the Pirates. Mitch Keller had another good start on Sunday, still not striking out many batters and giving up too many hits but it was a very encouraging start as he appears to be getting back on track. Martin Perez threw a gem of a game mid-week, however the Bednar blowup cost the team the great start. Marco Gonzales continued to be very impressive in his start, however the next day he went to the IL unfetteredly with what is being called a forearm strain. Bailey Falter, yes that Bailey Falter, threw a second very good start this week. Ever since he was booed by a handful of fans at the Pirate Home Opener, he has been very good. David Bednar had a rough week out of the bullpen, as did Colin Holderman. Also, Jose Hernandez had an appearance not as crisp as his others have been. All in all the starters continue to be impressive and the bullpen, for the most part, is locking it down.

Defense:
Once again baseball fundamentals cost the Pirates in this week’s games. Yet another incident in the outfield where a player did not call off a teammate causing a dropped ball and a near collision. 4 errors were committed this week by the Pirates, two of which were by Oneil Cruz. Once again, the Pirates need to work on communication in the outfield, and cleaner fielding on the infield. If these issues continue or get worse, it will start to cost them ball games. Good defense and smart base running will do the Pirates a lot of good moving forward toward the start of the NLC slate of games.

At 11-5, the Pirates remain in a good position. It would be good to see them win another series instead of the series splits they had this week, but they remain looking better than many expected. The injury to Gonzales and the slow start for Suwinski and McCutchen will be the focal points this week. If they can be expertly navigated then the Pirates will be in store for another good week of ballgames.