After Pirates' bats got healthy against Cubs, the challenge will increase in Tampa

Hopefully, Pirates fans got a good look at Oneil Cruz and the rest of the Pirates young guns during their recent series win over the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park.

Because the Pirates are embarking on a weeklong road trip, and they’ll face some pretty good competition over the next three weeks.

After taking three of four against the Chicago Cubs, the Pirates now head to Tampa Bay to battle the 37-32 Rays. Despite being five games over .500, that’s only good for fourth place in the ultra-deep American League East. Tampa is 14.5 games behind the first-place New York Yankees, yet only one game out of the American League’s final wild-card spot.

The Rays have had a rough go of things lately. They’ve dropped four series in a row, having lost two of three against the Twins, Yankees and Orioles. Plus, there was a series sweep at the hands of the Yankees during that span as well.

One issue the Pirates may have is that Tampa Bay happens to be one of the best home teams in all of baseball. They have 22 home wins. Only the Yankees, with 30, have more in the American League.

The Rays also have some of the best pitching in the league. They have a staff earned run average of 3.17. That’s the fourth best in MLB. They are tied for fourth in the league in team batting average against at .221. Their 180 walks are fourth fewest, and the staff’s WHIP of 1.12 is third best.

The Pirates will not face Shane Baz. The former Buccos first-round pick pitched Wednesday and got a no-decision in 4 ⅔ innings, allowing just a solo homer to Aaron Judge in a 5-4 loss to the Yankees. They will, however, have to face Jeffrey Springs on Friday, Corey Kluber on Saturday and Shane McClanahan on Sunday.

Springs has a 2.00 ERA and a .98 WHIP. In his last seven outings, he left without yielding an earned run four times. In six of those outings, he allowed two earned runs or less.

Kluber won the American League Cy Young in 2014 and 2017. He has a 2.35 ERA and an 18:3 strikeout to walk ratio over four starts in June.

McClanahan leads Major League Baseball with 113 strikeouts. He is 7-3 with a 1.81 ERA (fourth in MLB) and a WHIP of 0.85 (second best among starters in MLB). His 84.1 innings pitched are ninth most in MLB.

The Pirates totaled 32 runs over their four most recent games against the Cubs, averaging eight per contest. Don’t expect that kind of output at Tropicana Field this weekend.

The Pirates are scheduled to counter with Mitch Keller (2-5, 4.72 ERA) on Friday, J.T. Brubaker (1-7, 4.11 ERA) on Saturday and Roansy Contreras (2-1, 2.89 ERA) on Sunday.

Unfortunately for the Rays, they are about as bad at hitting as they are good at pitching.

Tampa ranks 26th in runs (278), 24th in team batting average (.232), 25th in on-base percentage (.296), 26th in slugging (.375) and 25th in OPS (.671). In each case, they are only two to three slots in front of the normally putrid Pirates bats.

Thankfully for the Pirates, after the series in Tampa, they get an immediate reprieve when they travel to Washington for three games. The Nationals are last in the National League East with a 25-47 record and have lost eight of their last 10 games.

After that, the Pirates return home again for four games against the Milwaukee Brewers, who are tied atop the National League Central with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Then they’ve got a bunch of weird scheduling quirks all the way up to the All-Star break.

The Pirates have an off-day on the Fourth of July, followed by two games at home against the juggernaut A.L. East leading Yankees (52-18).

Then Derek Shelton’s crew has an odd one-day trip to Cincinnati for a doubleheader against the Reds on July 7, followed by 10 road games in Milwaukee, Miami and Colorado to close out the first half of the season before the All-Star break.

By then, let’s hope all the excitement surrounding Cruz and company is still as present as it is now.