The Pittsburgh Pirates have known which teams they are playing and how many games there will be in MLB’s shortened season, but Monday night marked the unveiling of their 60-game schedule.

As if finishing in last place in 2019 wasn’t punishment enough, MLB Network’s MLB Tonight: Schedule Release show just straight skipped the poor Pirates while previewing the NL Central team schedules.

The season starts at St. Louis on July 24 and ends at Cleveland on Sept. 27. In between, the Pirates will play an even 40 games against the NL Central — 10 each against all four division opponents — and 20 games against the AL Central, 30 games at home and 30 games on the road.

The rest of it is rather odd.

The Pirates play six games at St. Louis and six at PNC Park against Milwaukee, seven games at Cincinnati and seven home games against the Chicago Cubs. They split six games with Cleveland, play four against both the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota, and three each against Detroit (all home) and Kansas City (all away).

If you’re looking for rhyme and reason, look elsewhere.

Let the fun begin. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/mJ4k899X4c

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 6, 2020

1. Trippin’: The travel doesn’t make much sense. The Pirates don’t play the Cubs and White Sox on the same road trip, instead going from Chicago to Minnesota and Milwaukee.

Neither do their days off. The Pirates play six games — three at St. Louis followed by the home opener and two others against Milwaukee — before their first day off. They go 17 days without another day off, on Aug. 17, then have two in a four-day span on Aug. 24 and 27. They repeat the two days off in a four-day span again a week later, then finish with 17 consecutive games to end the season.

2. Day dreamers: The Pirates also play seven day games at PNC Park — two on Thursdays (1:35 p.m., Aug. 6 vs. Twins and Sept. 3 vs. Cubs), two on Saturdays (4:05 p.m. on Aug. 8 vs. Tigers and Aug. 22 vs. Brewers) and three on Sundays (1:35 p.m., Aug. 9 vs. Tigers, Aug. 23 vs. Brewers and Sept. 6 vs. Reds).

There’s a potential scheduling conflict on the North Shore with the Steelers on Sept. 20. While the Steelers play the Broncos at 1 p.m. at Heinz Field, the Pirates play host to the Cardinals that Sunday at a time to be determined at PNC Park.

Not that they have to worry about traffic.

It’s a 60-game sprint. pic.twitter.com/yg7J93WuA6

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 6, 2020

3. Rough start: The schedule makers did the Pirates no favors, as three of their first four opponents — Cardinals (91-71), Brewers (89-73) and Twins (101-61) — made the 2019 playoffs.

And the Cubs won 84 games.

The Pirates will have played 13 games before the Tigers, who had MLB’s worst record at 47-114, visit PNC Park on Aug. 6. The Pirates don’t play the only other team on their schedule with a worse record than they had last season, the Royals (59-103), until Sept. 11-12.

So, they can’t afford a slow start.

Somehow, the Pirates remain optimistic that a shortened season could be to their benefit.

4. Why not the Bucs?: The Pirates believe both their youth and the enthusiasm of new manager Derek Shelton and his coaching staff will work to their advantage.

“Absolutely, man. It plays into our favor, a shortened season,” Pirates right-hander Joe Musgrove said. “When you come into spring training, there’s certain teams that have a significant advantage. There’s a start time dated out. Everyone knows exactly how much time they’re going to have to prepare and build up. The starters have a planned-out routine, even building up before they get to spring training to get them on track for where they’re going to be in the rotation during the season.

“So you flip all of that upside-down, you put us off for three months, where guys go home and some people don’t have a place to train, some people don’t have a place to throw, hit, and it puts a couple teams at disadvantages. I think the teams that really stayed locked in mentally and were able to get their work in physically throughout the downtime are going to thrive. We’re big on energy, man. We’re big on energy in our clubhouse.”

Keep swingin’. pic.twitter.com/At7YtpVntb

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 7, 2020

5. Energized: What the Pirates aren’t big on is star power.

With pitcher Chris Archer out for the season, first baseman Josh Bell is not only the Pirates’ lone returning All-Star, he’s their only active player ever selected for the Midsummer Classic.

But stars could be in short supply this season all across MLB. Freddie Freeman has tested positive. Mike Trout and Kris Bryant have publicly questioned whether they should be playing in a pandemic. There is a league-wide worry about soft-tissue injuries, given the long layoff between competitive play.

Despite being projected to have MLB’s lowest payroll before the coronavirus pandemic, Pirates players swear by their clubhouse chemistry and communication with coaches.

They also have described working diligently during their downtime. Adam Frazier went back to Mississippi State to use its facilities. Jacob Stallings and Bryan Reynolds found a group of players to practice with in Nashville. Josh Bell got creative in training at his apartment complex, climbing 10 flights of stairs and doing squats with kettle bells.

And despite having at least two players go public about testing positive for covid-19, the Pirates haven’t had anyone opt out for the season. Shelton reported that all but a handful of the 40 players on the training camp roster are practicing at PNC Park. And players are wearing masks everywhere but on the field.

“That’s another thing with the masks: It sucks that we have to wear it but if everyone comes in and is … complaining all day about having to wear these masks, our energy is bad. No one wants to be there and the energy kind of sucks,” Musgrove said. “I think we’ve got the right mindset right now. I think we’ve got the talent, and you take away over half the games and ask us to be good for two months, I think that’s something we can do.”

The schedule certainly doesn’t help their cause. The good news: The Pirates can’t be mathematically eliminated at the start of September, so there’s a reason to watch the season until the end.

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