Pittsburgh Pirates road trip report card for week of May 22-25

The bench

The Bucco bench, as has been the usual this season, did not do a whole lot Monday or Tuesday night. Wednesday, however, was a different story, as Jose Osuna and Gift Ngeope each had two hits, with the former tying the game with a two-run single in the ninth inning before contributing the second of three consecutive jacks in the tenth, and the latter getting the game-winning double. The Pirates whole offense is coming together and maybe the bench will start to play a bigger part in it.

The most intriguing bench option that has emerged is Osuna. The 24-year-old rookie does not have a sexy stat line. But as we saw Wednesday, the kid has power and lots of it. Osuna is a guy who has 25-30 homerun potential, and it will be interesting to see how much of that is on display as this season unfolds.

With Gregory Polanco off the 10-day disabled list, John Jaso it set to come back off the pine. As hard as it may be to believe, Jaso has been swinging a hot bat as of late, and he will help the Pirates pinch-hit situation as well.

Overall, the Pirates are showing, perhaps for the first time this season, some depth, and that is a huge thing for any big-league team to have.

Grade: A