Pittsburgh Pirates: Interleague Play Hurts Their Relative Standings

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 2-11 so far this year in Interleague play against the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, the Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Indians, and the Oakland As. The only bright spot was the 2-1 series against the comparably bad Cleveland Indians.

Even if they split the next two games with the As (which is expecting a lot), they would be 3-12 against the American League. Worse, Neil Walker was injured in yesterday's game.

The Pirates played three American League Central Teams, plus the substitutions of the Texas Rangers (a central team geographically if not league-wise) for the weaker Kansas City Royals, and the As for the Minnesota Twins. Playing the western division leaders (Rangers) clearly didn't help the Pirates, who might have taken a game or two from the Royals.

The better teams appear to be in the American League, and National League teams typically do slightly less than break even (.500) against them. But they do a lot better than the .200 tally implied by the Pirates' hypothetical three wins, meaning that the Pirates have lost ground, even against other National League teams.

Interleague results have been symptomatic of the Pirates' overall problems. They do well against selected teams in the National League like the Chicago Cubs (formerly a major bugaboo), but few others.The 1-2 tally earlier this month against the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals was a "good" one (for them).

But the formerly cellar-dwelling Washington Nationals took three games from them. All in all, the Pittsburghers had a very bad June, with only four wins, and the month almost over.

Even so, the Interleague games are the least important games in the season. Naturally, the Pirates want to do well on the curve against other National League teams, against opponents in the other league. On the other hand, no American League team, per se, will come out ahead of the Pirates in the standings based on these games, because of the separation of the leagues.