Rangers streak to No. 1 but surging Pirates are story of summer

The Pirates took over first place in the National League Central on Friday (by a few percentage points) and then claimed it outright for two days (by a half-game) on Monday and Tuesday. Such small margins wouldn't merit much attention in this space if it were any other team, but these are the Pirates, who haven't had a winning season since 1992 and haven't led their division this late in the season since that year either.

That '92 season was also the last time -- before this year -- Pittsburgh had strong starting pitching. The Pirates right now rank eighth in the majors in starting pitching ERA (3.48). All five men have a 4.15 mark or lower, and in the cases of Jeff Karstens (2.28) and Paul Maholm (3.06), it's much lower.

In their 18 straight losing seasons the Pirates' starters never had an ERA better than 4.16. Admittedly, much of that stretch came during the so-called Steroid Era, when offensive numbers were inflated, but three of the five seasons in which the rotation's ERA was over 5.00 came as offense was dying down in 2007, 2008 and 2010; the latter was known as the Year of the Pitcher, yet the Pirates had an abominable 5.28 ERA.

Suddenly, the Pirates have relevance. Twice in the next three weeks will they be on national television for the first time in five years. And while Pittsburgh's starting staff seems set, the club with the 28th-ranked $45 million major-league payroll is investigating the possibility of making a trade for a pricey rental to get offensive help at the deadline.

The Pirates' recent streak began on June 21, the solstice. Since their game that day they are 16-8 and have moved from fourth place to first. With such baggage and such opportunity, the Pirates are growing into 2011's Boys of Summer.

NOTE: All stats are updated through Wednesday, July 20.

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