Pittsburgh Pirates: SPs in a Groove, Offense Explodes & More From Dominating Sweep in Denver

The Pittsburgh Pirates did not just go to Coors Field and sweep the Colorado Rockies, they did so in dominant fashion

Entering the season the one thing everyone wanted to see from the Pittsburgh Pirates was progress. Coming off of one of the poorest four-season stretches in franchise history, people wanted to a big step in the right direction.

Well, through the first three weeks of the season it looks like that step is being taken. After dominating the Rockies in a three-game series sweep at Coors Field in which they outscored the Rockies 33-9, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now 12-7 this season.

The 12-7 start for the Pirates comes with a series record of 3-2-1 so far this season. Their three series wins now include a pair of series sweeps, something the Pirates did not do a single time in a season as recently as 2021.

Right now the Pirates are playing their best baseball of the Derek Shelton Era. How long will this continue? There is no way of knowing, so enjoy it while it does. Next up is a four-game series at PNC Park against the Cincinnati Reds, but before we look ahead to that series let's take a look back at takeaways from their three-game sweep of the Rockies.

Starting pitching stays strong

Everyone knows the old saying that in baseball you're only as good as your next day's starting pitcher. For the Pittsburgh Pirates, this has meant success in the last two weeks. This success would carry over into their series sweep of the Rockies. Yes, the Pirate offense exploded in this series but it was the starting pitching that set the tone by stifling the Rockie offense.

Shelton saw his starting pitcher go 6 innings in all three games of this series. With this, the Pirates are now up to nine straight games in which their starting pitcher has gone at least 6 innings. When you combine that with how well the Pirate bullpen has pitched this season, that's a recipe for winning baseball games.

Rich Hill started game one and turned in his best start as a Pirate, limiting the Rockies to 1 run in his 6 innings pitched. Vince Velasquez overcame a poor 1st inning in game two by pitching 5 scoreless to allow 3 runs while striking out 7 in 6 innings pitched. Johan Oviedo took the ball in game three and continued his strong start to the season by allowing a run on just 3 hits in 6 innings pitched.

The Pirate starting pitching depth has already taken some hits this season with injuries to JT Brubaker and Mike Burrows. Thankfully, the five guys in their starting rotation are starting to settle into a groove. How long they can remain in this groove will likely go a long way to determine how long this strong stretch of baseball can continue.

Offense explodes

So far this season the Pirate offense has been a major surprise. They rank in the top 10 of Major League Baseball in hits, runs scored, home runs, extra-base hits, on-base percentage, stolen bases, and are in the bottom 10 of baseball in strikeouts.

In this series the Pirate offense was clicking more than it has at any other point early in the season. The Bucs scored 33 runs across the three games, including eclipsing 10 runs twice. This marks three times already this season that they have scored double digit runs.

Throughout the series the Pirates flooded the base paths. To be honest, the Rockies were lucky the Pirates did not score even more runs than they did. Right now the Pirate offense is clicking on all cylinders and that is a big reason why they are currently playing the best baseball of Shelton's tenure as manager.

Jack Suwinski improving his road woes

As a rookie last season Jack Suwinski hit 19 home runs in just 372 plate appearances. This performance made Suwinski an intriguing bat. However, one thing he needed to do was improve away from PNC Park.

Last season, Suwinsk hit just .112/.211/.184 on the road. This included just 3 home runs, with 2 doubles and a 36.3% strikeout rate. This was the young Pirate outfielder bordering on being unplayably bad on the road.

So far this season, Suwinski has taken a big step toward solving his road woes. After recording just 17 hits, 3 home runs, and 2 doubles on the road last season, he already has 7 hits, 2 home runs, and a double on the road this season.

For the series Suwinski went 3-for-7 with his 3 long balls and a pair of walks. He also put together multiple strong at-bats against left-handed pitchers, another kryptonite for him last season, that included a walk and sacrifice fly that was nearly a home run on Wednesday afternoon.

If Suwinski can improve on the road this season he could become a very dangerous hitter at the plate. This could make Suwinski one of the more dangerous power hitters on this team. Hopefully, this is the start of Suwinski overcoming his road woes.