Pittsburgh Pirates Report Card for week of 4/28-5/4

Analysis: Another Bucco road trip is in the books. As has been a theme of a season still in its infancy, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a Jekyll and Hyde week.

It started smoothly, as Pittsburgh Pirates took its first two games of a weekend series with the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park by a combined score of 16-2. The Bucs took a 10-3 shellacking from the fish in the series finale, however, and the Pirates would ride that sour note from South Beach all the way to the Ohio River.

The Bucs arrived in Cincinnati looking to avenge an embarrassing three-game sweep by the Reds at PNC Park in early April. Sadly, they were not able to do so, as Cincy continued to have its way with the Pirates, taking three out of four games and improving its record against Pittsburgh to 6-1 in 2017.

This road trip saw plenty of positives, such as Gift Ngeope continuing to shine. It also saw some negatives, such as the Pirates offense continuing to struggle. So here is a breakdown of the positives and negatives from this week by way of a report card format dissecting how the Pirates performed in the major facets of the game, starting with the starting rotation.