The numbers beggared belief, but they were real.
According to reporting by Maury Brown of Forbes.com, of the 29 Major League Baseball media markets, the Pirates attracted the sixth-largest local cable rating for their games through the first half of the 2018 season.
I'll say it again: The Pittsburgh Pirates, who until very recently were all but dead in the National League postseason hunt, are in the top fifth of MLB teams when it comes to TV ratings in the home market.
To be exact, the Pirates drew a 5.01 local rating before the all-star break, which means that roughly 5 percent of households in the market are tuned to the Bucs on an average night.