May Recap

A week late with this, but here goes.

The Pirates went 15-13 in May to bring their overall record to 25-25. They had a three and a four game winning streak and never lost more than two in a row.

The offense improved more than half a run, from 2.64 runs per game to 3.18 rpg. Unfortunately the pitching regressed almost a whole run, going from an even 3.00 rpg to 3.93 rpg. The big star of the month was James McDonald. The tall righty was 3-1 with a 1.54 ERA, 10.0 K/9 and held opponents to a .509 OPS.

Remember that tough April schedule the Pirates had and how things were going to be easier in May? Well, easier is relative. Pirates opponents played .528 ball (149-133) in May compared to .570 in April.

Other Notes:

The Pirates won four series, lost four series and split two.

Record vs
NL East: 5-5, 33 RS, 38 RA (3.30 RS/G, 3.80 RA/G)
NL Central: 9-6, 49 RS, 59 RA (3.27 RS/G, 3.93 RA/G)
AL Central: 1-2, 7 RS, 13 RA (2.33 RS/G, 4.33 RA/G)

Home: 11-7, 52 RS, 54 RA (2.89 RS/G, 3.00 RA/G)
Away: 4-6, 37 RS, 56 RA (3.70 RS/G, 5.60 RA/G)

1 Run games: 9-3
2 Run games: 2-2
3 Run games: 3-2
4 Run games: 0-1
5 Run games: 0-2
6 Run games: 1-1
7 Run games: 0-1
9 Run games: 0-1

Summary: The Pirates were pretty lucky in May. They won way more than their share of one run games and gave up a good chunk of their total runs allowed in a few blowouts. The team as a whole is playing much better ball to end May than they did to start the month and that good play has carried over into June.