Red-Hot Pirates Storming Cardinals for Control of NL Central

If the Pittsburgh Pirates were piloting an actual vessel adorned with a black skull-and-crossbones flag, they'd be sailing with a stiff wind at their back.

Sunday was the latest salvo in their swashbuckling streak, as the Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 in 10 innings at PNC Park to take three of four from the Cards, sauntering within 2.5 games of first place in the National League Central.

Really, though, the Bucs have been rolling for weeks. After going 17-9 in June, they've won 10 of 12 in July and head into the All-Star break at 53-35, the second-best record in the Senior Circuit.

"Quite the climactic ending right there," center fielder Andrew McCutchen said Saturday after blasting a two-run home run in the 14th inning to seal a come-from-behind 6-5 victory, per MLB.com's Adam Berry and John McGonigal. "That was a lot of fun." 

The Pirates had more fun Sunday, engineering a second straight comeback in extra frames. After the Cardinals went up 5-3 in the top of the 10th, Pittsburgh stormed back with three in the home half, capped by a Gregory Polanco single that plated Jung Ho Kang.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

As is usually the case when a club gets hot, the Pirates have been enjoying contributions from up and down the lineup.

It begins with McCutchen, the former NL MVP who started slow this season but has hiked his average to .295 and is headed to Cincinnati to play in his fifth consecutive Midsummer Classic.

The supporting cast, however, has also begun chipping in more, particularly of late. Take catcher Francisco Cervelli, who was given the seemingly impossible task of replacing team leader and field general Russell Martin, who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays this winter.

So far, so good, as Fox Sports' David Golebiewski noted in June:

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Francisco Cervelli is doing his best Martin impression at a fraction of the price. Cervelli—acquired from the Yankees for lefty reliever Justin Wilson and earning less than $1 million during his second year of arbitration eligibility—could be emerging as one of the game's best dual catching threats. He's expanding the strike zone for the Pirates' top-rated pitching staff, and serving as a catalyst in a lineup that has largely underachieved in 2015.

"

That underachieving lineup currently ranks seventh in the NL in runs scored, not enough to qualify for world-beater status, but enough to support a superlative pitching staff.

Entering the break, Bucs pitchers own the second-best ERA in baseball, behind only St. Louis. That's thanks to a rotation anchored by Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano and Comeback Player of the Year contender A.J. Burnett, each of whom owns an ERA under 3.00 and 100 or more strikeouts.

Burnett is easily the best story of the bunch, a 38-year-old veteran who appeared headed for a career-ending crash last season in Philadelphia and is now set to make his first-ever All-Star appearance in a pair of Batman cleats, per SportsBusiness Journal's Eric Fisher:

Those are the sort of frivolous, feel-good stories you see when a team is going good. The question now: Can Pittsburgh keep it up?

It's not as if the Pirates came out of nowhere. They've made the playoffs as a wild-card team each of the past two seasons, after all.

But after a National League Division Series loss in 2013 and a disappointing exit in the Wild Card Game last year at home against the eventual champion San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh is looking to get over the hump.

This is no longer the club that failed to taste the postseason for two decades beginning in 1993, the year a certain MVP outfielder by the name of Barry Bonds bolted for the Bay Area.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

These are the new Pirates, contenders through and through. As they showed St. Louis over the past four games, their sights are set on avoiding the wild-card crapshoot altogether and winning a division title outright.

The Bucs and Cards will meet nine times in the second half, with three contests in Pittsburgh and six in St. Louis. And don't count out the upstart Chicago Cubs, who sit at 47-40 and will likely hang around through the summer with their enviable young core.

This should be a dogfight to the end, and it might end up being the most exciting race in baseball during a season that's been defined, in part, by mediocrity masquerading as parity (see: the American League East).

To manager Clint Hurdle, the formula for Pittsburgh's success is simple. "Grit, determination, perseverance, keep playing the game," the Pirates skipper said, per CBS Sports. "When something doesn't go right, you keep playing the game."

You can't control the wind, in other words, but you can adjust your sails. Fortunately for the Pirates, the wind is currently blowing their way.

All statistics current as of July 12 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.