Pirates-Brewers: Recent Series Not All Bad For Pittsburgh

The bad news is that the Pirates lost three games to the Brewers over the weekend. The good news is that those losses were all by one run. Meaning that Pittsburgh could have won any or perhaps all of them.

Next year, perhaps, we will. And be better than a last place team. By being a better team than Milwaukee, at least heads up.

In the first game, the Pirates compiled a 4-2 lead by the fifth inning, then dribbled away the lead, one run at a time in each of the final three innings, finally losing 5-4.

In the second game, the situation was reversed, with the Brewers getting off to a 4-0 lead, and the Pirates clawing back one run in each of three late innings, to make it a fight, but not a win.

The third game was tied 4-4 after eight, with the Pirates getting a run in the top of the ninth. But Octavio Dotel, normally a reliable closer, gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth for a defeat.

Last year, the Pirates broke the former Milwaukee "jinx" at home by going 5-3 in PNC Park. This year, they managed to actually win two out of three, in an earlier series at Miller Park. Three victories over the weekend (also in Miller) would have left the Bucs 5-1 in the Brewers' home turf, and 6-5 on the season (instead of 3-8).

That didn't happen, of course, but the Brewers basically showed themselves to be beatable. The Bucs get another crack at them next week, with a four-game homestand.

The Pirates are finally beginning to make headway against teams in their own division (the games that count most, because they are the most numerous, and because a win automatically represents a loss in division standings for the other team, and vice versa).

They're ahead 9-3 in the season series against the Cubs, who formerly "owned" them. The cracks in the Brewers' former superiority are beginning to show, and will likely widen if they lose Prince Fielder.

The one team in the lower reaches of the National League Central that the Pirates aren't playing well against is the Houston Astros. But even here, there is a glimmer of hope.

In 2006, the Astros dominated the Pirates 13-3, but the following year, it was the reverse, with the Pirates leading 10-5 in the season series. Such dramatic reversals actually signal two fairly well matched teams, except that one is better than the other in every major category.

The Pirates are now "the better of equals" against the Chicago Cubs. If they can maintain this, and do the same against the Brewers and Astros next year, they can at least dominate the lower reaches of the National League Central, coming fourth or third in the division.

Then they can consolidate, before trying to make a run for the division title in 2012 or 2013.