Baseball is a long season filled of 162 games but believe it or not we are already at the halfway point of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After a 5-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners this past Thursday, the Pirates played their 81st game of the season, and they were 41-40. They dropped to .500 after Friay’s loss, but at the halfway point, the Bucs are a .500 team, which is a start they haven’t had since over a decade.
The Pirates have faced plenty of injury trouble, from missing starter Jared
Jones for the first two months to losing key offensive weapons Konnor Griffin, Oneil Cruz and now Spencer Horwitz. Yet Pittsburgh has managed to stay afloat as it enters a pivotal second half, increasing its win total by 9 from last season at this point and accomplishing its best first half since 2015, the last time it reached the postseason.
In 2025, the Pirates ranked dead last in home runs and finished last in the NL Central with just 71 wins. They made some serious changes in the offseason to fix the offense by trading for Brandon Lowe, who leads the team with 19 home runs. The team also brought in Marcell Ozuna and Ryan O’Hearn who have helped offensively as well.
Lowe said he and O’Hearn talked about the prospect of Pittsburgh’s lineup at full strength after Wednesday night’s 11-run barrage with no home runs. Lowe described the team as “scary” once weapons like Griffin and Cruz return.
We already saw the impact Griffin has on this lineup after his leadoff home run in the 6-4 loss the Pirates had to the Cincinnati Reds.
Reynolds is the longest-tenured position player on the Pirates. He said this season is different from past first halves, but there’s still plenty of baseball left.
“Do I think that we’re better than a .500 baseball team through 81 games? Yeah, absolutely,” said Jake Mangum, who filled into the leadoff spot for Horwitz on Thursday. “But at the same time, we’re still learning how to win, and we haven’t played our best baseball yet. If I could pick a time to play your best baseball, it’s the second half.”
The start that team has been on has been fun to watch, but they have struggled in the month of June with a record of 9-13. The team feels very optimistic about the start and what they can do in the second half of season but if they want to snap their playoff drought the bullpen needs to play better and they have to make some moves during the trade deadline.
