PITTSBURGH (AP) —
Coming off a pair of draining one-run losses and facing an early deficit against perhaps the best team in baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates could have bailed.
It's August. They're essentially out of the playoff mix following a scorching start. Their focus over the final third of the season is essentially trying to see how far along the young core they've been cultivating has come.
That core provided a pretty emphatic answer on Thursday, rallying past Atlanta 7-5 to earn a four-game split against a team that has long been where the Pirates are trying to go.