Pirates fans can't afford to fall for the same trap after Cubs series

The Pittsburgh Pirates have apparently been “done” about five different times already this season.

They were done when the St. Louis Cardinals swept them in April. They were done after the Philadelphia Phillies swept them in May. They were done when the Atlanta Braves did the same in June, and again when Pittsburgh lost eight of 10 during a particularly ugly stretch early that month. The series loss to the Colorado Rockies was supposed to be another breaking point.

But every time, the Pirates bounced back. That's worth remembering now, after Pittsburgh dropped four of its last six games and opened an important pre-trade deadline homestand by losing two of three to the Chicago Cubs.

The timing makes the frustration worse. Every game feels magnified when the trade deadline is days away and the front office is deciding how aggressively to pursue help. But Pirates fans can't afford to become prisoners of the moment with this team.

Pittsburgh enters the final 56 games of the season just one game out of the final National League playoff spot and three games out of the second wild-card position. And there are legitimate reasons to believe the version of the Pirates that plays those final 56 games could be better than the one that got them here.

Pirates have earned patience from fans as they look to bounce back after frustrating Cubs series

Spencer Horwitz, Endy Rodríguez, Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin should all return for at least some portion of the stretch run. Pittsburgh has spent significant chunks of this season without several hitters who were supposed to be important parts of its lineup.

The bullpen is another obvious problem. Pittsburgh has repeatedly wasted winnable games in leverage situations, and there probably isn't a more urgent area for Ben Cherington to address before Monday's trade deadline.

The encouraging part — if there is one — is that it would be difficult for the bullpen to continue performing this poorly in the biggest moments. Reinforcements should be coming, too. If Cherington is serious about giving this team a chance, at least one meaningful relief addition needs to arrive.

The Pirates have also gone an almost incomprehensible 3-10 over Paul Skenes' last 13 starts, most recently falling 11-0 in his start against the Cubs on Saturday. They don't even need to suddenly become dominant in those games, but even average results behind Skenes over the final two months could swing multiple games in the standings.

And while everyone is understandably focused on what has gone wrong lately, there have been some extremely encouraging developments in the rotation. Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler just produced some of the best pitching of their careers in the last week. If that continues alongside Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft, Pittsburgh has the type of starting pitching that can keep it competitive deep into September.

Of course, none of this guarantees a playoff appearance. The Pirates still have to play better, and Cherington still has to improve the roster. Ownership and the front office can't look at a team hovering around the wild-card line and use its imperfections as justification to sit out the deadline. The pressure should be enormous.

But there's still a massive gap between saying the Pirates need help and declaring their season finished. They have 56 games left. They're within three games of two playoff spots. Injured regulars are coming back. The bullpen can be upgraded. The rotation suddenly looks deeper. And this team has already responded to multiple stretches that supposedly proved it was headed nowhere.

Maybe the Pirates ultimately fall short, and this is finally the adversity they can't overcome. But declaring them dead because they lost a frustrating series to the Cubs is simply falling for the same trap this season has already exposed several times.

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