Pirates' surprise success has them favored to make the postseason

Pirates' surprise success has them favored to make the postseason originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

At 21-17, the Pittsburgh Pirates sit third in the National League Central standings, which is surprising. Sitting five games behind the Chicago Cubs (26-12) for the lead in the division, the Pirates are showing that they might be able to make the playoffs as a wild-card team.

The Pittsburgh Pirates' surprise success has them positioned to make the playoffs for the first time in over a decade

The Pirates have not made the postseason since 2015, when they lost in the Wild Card round (1-0) to the Cubs. However, that appears to be changing, as MLB.com's Thomas Harrigan ranked the Pirates second, behind the Tampa Bay Rays, as the biggest surprise team with a chance to make the playoffs.

"The Pirates (20-17) may be in fourth place in the surprising National League Central right now, but they’ve outscored their opponents by 23 runs and are mere percentage points behind the Brewers (19-16) in the race for the third NL Wild Card spot," wrote Harrigan. "Pittsburgh’s revamped offense is legit, especially with rookie phenom  starting to find his form, and its rotation has MLB’s lowest FIP (3.30). Reigning NL Cy Young winner  had a rough Opening Day start against , but he’s looked like his typical self over his past seven starts (1.31 ERA), and the Bucs have also gotten strong performances from  (2.85 ERA) and  (3.02 ERA).