ST. LOUIS -- In life, being "passive-aggressive" is an offensive personality flaw. In the batter's box, however, it has served the Pirates' offense well.
Through the first month of this season, the Bucs led MLB with the most games without drawing a base on balls -- nine of their first 21. They drew only 11 more such blanks in 112 games since entering Saturday's action, and that has been reflected in the spiked production, most notably on the scoreboard.
Four runs is this team's magic marker; the Pirates are 62-12 when scoring at least four runs. They were averaging under four runs in their no-walk phase, have been over it since.