NL Wild Card standings exposing brutal truth about Pirates' playoff chase amid hot streak

The Pittsburgh Pirates are finally playing the kind of baseball everyone spent months waiting to see. Unfortunately, September has exposed the uncomfortable reality that simply playing well is no longer enough.

Since getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in August, the Pirates have gone 8-4, tied for the second-best record in baseball over that span behind only the Atlanta Braves. Under normal circumstances, that kind of run would represent a meaningful charge up the standings. Instead, Pittsburgh has gained only 1.5 games on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

That is the brutal math of the Pirates’ current playoff chase, which is already on life support as it is. Entering Tuesday, Pittsburgh sits at 71-73, while the Diamondbacks are 77-68 and currently occupy the National League’s final Wild Card position. The San Diego Padres are also ahead of Pittsburgh at 76-68, giving the Pirates another team they must leapfrog rather than simply chase Arizona.

With only 18 games remaining for Pittsburgh, there simply isn’t enough schedule left to slowly chip away. The Pirates can't simply win series anymore; they need sweeps. Plural.

Pirates’ 8-4 surge still isn’t enough to fix their NL Wild Card predicament

Going 2-1 in a series is usually good baseball. Pittsburgh has won four straight series and six of its past seven. But at this stage, winning two out of three while Arizona or San Diego does the same accomplishes almost nothing. That’s exactly what has happened during Pittsburgh’s hot streak.

The Pirates have finally started stacking victories, but the teams they are chasing haven’t cooperated enough. Arizona remains firmly in front of them, San Diego remains another obstacle, and the Pirates essentially need both clubs to stumble while simultaneously playing near-perfect baseball themselves. That is precisely why the lack of sweeps has become so costly.

Take a three-game series against a beatable opponent. Winning two is nice. Sweeping all three gains an additional game in the standings immediately — and with fewer than three weeks remaining, those individual games have become enormously valuable.

The Pirates spent too much of July and August leaving themselves without margin for error. Their August freefall turned what could have been a manageable Wild Card race into a September emergency. Now they’re paying for it.

Pittsburgh’s 8-4 run deserves credit. It has kept the season alive and at least made these final weeks meaningful. But the standings are also delivering a harsh message.

Staying hot isn't enough. The Pirates need to become almost impossible to beat.

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