Newsflash: This Isn't Going to Be Easy

The Pirates won games at a ridiculous rate through the first four months of the season. They found so many different ways to win and had so much good fortune that it almost made winning seem easy.

The time since the all-star break has proved that it's certainly not easy. Sure, the team is 15-12 since the break which is still a pretty respectable record, but they have played some pretty bad competition and have struggled even in some of their wins. They certainly don't look like the front running team we saw for most of the first half of the season.

The problem is that people are surprised by this. No matter what the standings have said, the Pirates have never been the best team around this year. They still have holes and honestly just have had a lot of guys over performing this year (see James McDonald). Now that some guys are coming back to earth and some of the breaks are going against them instead of for them, we're seeing the team have a much harder time winning series. The Pirates are 4-3-1 in series since the break, and aren't off to a great start with the 9-8 loss to the Padres here.

162 is a big number. It's really tough for a baseball team to play well for the entire season. It rarely happens. It doesn't help that the Pirates are a small market team with only two really legitimate stars on the roster (that's McCutchen and Burnett in case you were wondering). Even the strongest teams have trouble at times, so this shouldn't be anything near a surprise to people.

The hope is that they can get hot again and some of the other teams they're competing with get cold. It's probably going to take at least 89 wins to make the playoffs this year, and that means the Pirates have to go at least 26-24 the rest of the way out. That doesn't seem too bad, but it means they're going to have to win some games against the Dodgers, Cardinals, and Reds - which probably won't be too easy.

No matter what happens, just do yourself a favor and enjoy being in contention. Don't let the recent struggles make you freak out. Just enjoy a good thing while you have it.