It’s been a whirlwind week for the Pirates. Coming out of the All-Star break, they were unceremoniously swept at home by the Chicago White Sox — the very bottom dwellers of the American League — losing three straight and seeing their opponents score at will in a 27-7 rout across the series, capped by a 7-2 drubbing on Sunday afternoon.
Less than 48 hours later, Pittsburgh flipped the script against baseball’s hottest club. Paul Skenes opened the Tigers series on Monday with six shutout innings in a 3-0 victory. The offense then exploded for an 8-5 win on Tuesday, and on Wednesday Bailey Falter turned in seven one-run frames while Spencer Horwitz belted his first career grand slam in the 6-1 finale. The sweep of the AL’s best team felt almost surreal after their weekend lows in black-and-gold jerseys.
That bizarre back-to-back contrast hasn’t been seen since the 1980 San Diego Padres. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, no team since that squad had been swept by a league’s worst club and then turned around to sweep the league leader in consecutive series past the season’s midpoint. It’s a testament to how unpredictable baseball can be, and how a franchise mired in losing can still deliver moments of pure magic.
Despite the Tigers sweep, the Pirates remain rooted in the NL Central basement at 42-61. Skenes — already a Cy Young candidate with a 1.91 ERA and 0.91 WHIP — is 5-8 on the year, a reminder that even ace-level performances can’t always translate into wins for a rebuilding club. The late-July highlight won’t disguise the growing pains still on full display in Pittsburgh’s clubhouse.
In a season of ups and downs, this stretch shows both how far the Pirates have to go and the tantalizing potential hidden on their roster. The challenge now is consistency: building on these high-water marks without slipping back into the depths. This weekend, they’ll cap their homestand by hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park — another chance to feed off home energy before hitting the road and keep this surprising momentum alive.
Pirates top performers from Wednesday
Spencer Horwitz: belted his first career grand slam (416-foot shot to center), driving in four runs in the 6-1 win
Bailey Falter: spun seven innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits with no walks and fanning a career-high eight batters
Andrew McCutchen: broke the ice with a solo homer in the first inning—his ninth long ball of the season
Bryan Reynolds: led off the third inning with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly
Oneil Cruz: lifted a sacrifice fly in the third to bring home Reynolds for his lone RBI of the game