For the fourth summer in a row, the Pittsburgh Pirates came into the All-Star Break guns blazing, hotter than hell, on a roll, whatever expression you’d like to use. When the second half of the season officially started two Friday’s ago, Pittsburgh was a few L flags atop the Wrigley Field scoreboard away from first place in the NL Central. But there was no joy in Chicago for the visitors.
Instead, the Cubbies flew three fat W’s and the Pirates late-July nosedive began, and it’s looking to be worse than anything we’ve seen since that luscious 16-36 run to end the 2012 season.