Pirates notching various milestones in series win over Mariners brings unexpected hope for 2026

For most of the last decade, the midway point of a Pittsburgh Pirates season has come with more resignation than belief.

This year feels different.

That doesn't mean the Pirates are a finished product. It doesn't mean their 41-40 first-half record is worth a parade. It doesn't erase the frustrating losses, the injury pileup or the lingering questions about whether this team has enough pitching depth and bullpen reliability to survive a meaningful second-half race.

But after Thursday’s 5-1 win over the Seattle Mariners at PNC Park, there was something Pittsburgh has not had much of at the halfway mark in recent years: legitimate hope.

The Pirates finished the first half above .500 for the first time through 81 games since 2015, the last time they reached the postseason. Don Kelly earned his 100th win as manager. The bullpen, shaky as it looked at times, completed its first scoreless series of the season.

Bryan Reynolds extended his on-base streak to a career-high 30 games and his hitting streak to 15. Brandon Lowe continued to look like one of the most important additions of the offseason. Henry Davis, after a quiet June, delivered the kind of opposite-field homer that hinted there may still be more in his bat.

None of it guarantees anything. But together, it felt like the kind of day that suggested the Pirates may actually be building something in 2026.

Pirates' imperfect series win over Mariners sums up chaotic but encouraging first half

The Pirates certainly didn't play a clean, stress-free game on Thursday. Seattle loaded the bases in three consecutive innings. The Mariners went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. Evan Sisk and Yohan Ramirez created plenty of anxious moments on the mound. But Mason Montgomery steadied the seventh, Gregory Soto closed the door, and Pittsburgh kept finding ways to escape.

“We bent,” Kelly told Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We didn’t break.”

That's a pretty fair description of the Pirates’ first half, too.

They spent two months without Jared Jones. They lost Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz, two of their most dynamic offensive players. Now Spencer Horwitz is hurt. Marcell Ozuna hasn't provided the impact they paid for. The rotation under new pitching coach Bill Murphy has been good but not quite as sharp as last year.

And yet, here they are.

Bubba Chandler’s outing captured the state of this team well. He didn't have his best stuff, but he allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings, reached 101.4 mph when he needed an extra gear and found a way through trouble.

The Pirates’ second half will demand more than grit. They need Cruz and Griffin back. They need the bullpen to become more stable. They need Paul Skenes and the rotation to raise the ceiling again. But 81 games in, the Pirates have already proven something important. They're better, deeper and more resilient than they have been in years.

For a franchise starving for progress, that's not everything. It is, however, a start.

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