The Pittsburgh Pirates are a completely different offense than they were a year ago.
Calling it a night and day difference doesn’t do it justice.
A year after falling in the bottom five of most offensive categories, the Pirates are a top-five offense in baseball.
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The team is second best in baseball in on-base percentage (.338), tied for second in hits (8.8), fourth in batting average (.255), tied for fourth in OPS (.740), and fifth best in baseball in runs per game (5.1).
It’s not an opinion, but a fact.
The most drastic improvement? Power.
Pittsburgh hit an MLB-low 117 home runs last season. The next closest team was the rival St. Louis Cardinals (148), who beat out the Bucs for last place by a jarring 31 homers.
This season? The Pirates are on pace to top 117 by mid-July.
Don Kelly’s team owns 71 home runs in 61 games, on pace for over 180 homers in 2026.
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The Bucs hit three longballs on Tuesday in Houston and are getting contributions up and down the lineup. Brandon Lowe hit his 15th of the season, and Oneil Cruz smacked his 14th, both three-run long balls, to power the Pirates to a 10-6 victory.
Endy Rodriguez started the scoring with a two-run shot. Initially ruled a triple, the call was overturned to a home run following a video review for his first of the season.
Cruz led the Pirates in home runs last season, but only amounted 20 in 135 games. He is on pace for a 30/30 season and the best year of his career.
Lowe leads all Pirates with 15 and ranks tied for fourth in the National League, one year after hitting 31 with the Tampa Bay Rays in 134 games.
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Bryan Reynolds finished second on the team in 2025 with 16 round-trippers. Lowe is one away. It’s June 3.
Five Pirates have hit six or more home runs, and Marcell Ozuna, who has been relegated to a part-time player, has hit five.
The Pirates offense is more balanced, and created lineup protection for veterans mainstays like Reynolds and Cruz.
Spencer Horwitz is having an eye-popping season with seven home runs and a .385 on-base percentage, eighth highest in the National League.
The Pirates were one of four teams to score at least 300 runs through May. The others are all World Series contenders (Braves, Dodgers, Yankees).
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This season marked the first time the Pirates won 30 games before the end of May since 2013.
The expectation was that the Pirates’ offense would be good, but not THIS good.
Could this be the best offense since the 1979 “Lumber Company” Pirates?
The last World Series championship team led the NL in runs (775) and hits (1,496). Led by 1979 MVP Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and Bill Robinson, the Pirates only hit 148 home runs.
This year’s club should well exceed it, albeit in a different era of baseball and how the game is played.
Lowe, Reynolds, Cruz, and even Ryan O’Hearn all have legitimate cases to make the All-Star Game.
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Pittsburgh has an offense that has proven through the first third of the season that it can be sustained.
The club is +35 in run differential and sits in second place in the very difficult NL Central.
It’s not an illusion. It’s no fantasy. It’s not a dream. The Pirates’ offense is good for the first time in a long time, and they’re not looking to wake up from this dream.
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