Pittsburgh Pirates Survive Smoke, Rain and Their Own Bullpen to Stay in the Wild Card Race

Wildfire smoke in Cleveland, a rainout in the Bronx, two doubleheaders in five days, a walk-off gut punch, a trade for a reliever and a 10-inning win over Gerrit Cole — the Pittsburgh Pirates crammed a month of chaos into one week and somehow came out of it exactly where they went in: right on the edge of a playoff spot. A 3-3 road trip left them 53-50, roughly half a game out of the final NL wild card, chasing the franchise's first postseason berth since 2015. If you follow Pittsburgh Pirates news, the past seven days told you everything about this team — the young arms are legit, the rookies keep hitting, and the bullpen is the thing that could sink all of it.

Smoke, Splits and Skenes in Cleveland

The week began with a postponement nobody had on their bingo card: Friday's opener against the Guardians was called off because wildfire smoke pushed Cleveland's air quality index past 200. That set up a Saturday split doubleheader, and the Pirates won the opener 7-1 behind Jared Jones, who struck out nine over five innings while Jacob Gonzalez, Esmerlyn Valdez and Nick Gonzales all homered off Gavin Williams. The win, their fourth straight, put Pittsburgh four games over .500 for the first time since 2018. The nightcap was the week's first bullpen bruise: the Pirates carried a 1-0 lead through seven, gave up three in the eighth, and lost 5-3 when Travis Bazzana hit a two-run walk-off homer off Dennis Santana in the ninth — the first career walk-off for the Cleveland rookie, and per MLB.com the first by an Australian-born player since 1900. Fun for the record books, miserable for Pittsburgh.

Sunday belonged to Paul Skenes. The ace fired seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts in a 7-1 win that clinched the series, improving to 9-8 and extending a stretch of three straight strong starts. Billy Cook chipped in a career-high three hits with two RBIs, Gonzales doubled twice, and Valdez capped it with a two-run homer in the ninth — becoming, per CBS Sports, just the sixth Pirates rookie with at least 20 RBIs in a calendar month. The win also ran the Pirates to 11-4 in their last 15 interleague games and a fifth straight interleague series victory.

Extremes in the Bronx

Monday in New York went sideways fast. Braxton Ashcraft was strafed for eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits in three innings, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit two homers and drove in five, and the Yankees won 8-5 despite another Valdez two-run shot. Ashcraft's July now reads like a horror novella: an ERA north of eight with eight homers allowed in four starts. Tuesday brought rain and another postponement, setting up Wednesday's twinbill.

Game 1 was the win of the week. Cole carried a perfect game into the fifth and struck out 11 without a walk, but Gonzalez broke through with his first career homer, a two-run shot in the fifth, and Gonzales added a solo blast in the seventh for a 3-0 lead behind five scoreless innings from Mitch Keller. Ben Rice's three-run homer — his 30th — tied it in the seventh, but Jared Triolo and Jake Mangum delivered RBI singles in the 10th and Gregory Soto closed out a 5-3 win for his 13th save. The nightcap was a 2-0 heartbreaker: rookie Bubba Chandler was brilliant, blanking the Yankees into the seventh on 84 pitches, but manager Don Kelly's decision to lift him at 84 pitches backfired when Brandon Eisert walked Cody Bellinger and surrendered the go-ahead double to Jasson Dominguez, with Anthony Volpe tacking on an RBI single. Kelly defended the hook afterward as workload management for a rookie in his first full big-league summer, but the second-guessing in Pittsburgh was loud and immediate. Max Fried, activated early from the injured list, threw five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, and the Pirates dropped the series two games to one.

The Bullpen Problem Everyone Can See

Here's the uncomfortable arithmetic: Pirates relievers carry a 4.42 ERA, bottom third in baseball, and the team has now lost seven games this season in which its win probability was 89 percent or better with fewer than five outs to go. Two of this week's three losses traced straight to the bullpen. The front office did something about it on Thursday, acquiring right-hander Ron Marinaccio from San Diego for $500,000 in international bonus pool space and designating Santana — he of the Bazzana walk-off — for assignment. Marinaccio brings a 4.79 ERA across 47 innings this season, while Santana's 6.05 ERA was a far cry from the 2.18 he posted in 2025. It's a depth move, not a fix, and everyone involved seems to know it. General manager Ben Cherington has been open about buying, and MLB Trade Rumors' deadline outlook lists the needs plainly: at least one high-leverage reliever, ideally two, plus a back-end starter and a right-handed bench bat before the Aug. 3 deadline. With playoff odds hovering around 40 percent, the next ten days may decide the season.

Where the Pirates Stand

The NL Central race is out of reach — Pittsburgh sits fourth at 53-50, 11.5 games behind runaway Milwaukee, with the Cubs at 57-45 in second. The wild card is the whole ballgame, and there the Pirates are within roughly half a game of the final spot in a scrum with the Cardinals, Marlins and Diamondbacks. Zoom out and the progress is startling: this team was 39-58 at last year's break and 50-47 at this one. Skenes embodies the season's strange shape — a 1.09 ERA over his first eight starts, a winless two-month slog through the middle, and now three straight strong outings with his velocity down a tick but his stuff still elite. Around him, the kids keep arriving: Valdez's power surge, Chandler in the rotation, Gonzalez producing since the White Sox trade.

Injury Report

• Oneil Cruz (fractured hand) was transferred to the 60-day IL; he's eligible to return Aug. 8, and Cherington says the extended timeline is precautionary rather than a setback.
• Spencer Horwitz (hamstring), hitting .280 with 10 homers when he went down in late June, could begin a rehab assignment within about a week.
• Endy Rodriguez (glute strain) is on a similar rehab timeline.
• Konnor Griffin, the top prospect who debuted in April, remains on the 60-day IL with a finger injury and targets a September return.
• Right-hander Khristian Curtis had his contract selected from Triple-A Indianapolis as the corresponding move for Cruz.

What's Next: Cubs at PNC Park

No easing back in — the second-place Cubs come to Pittsburgh for a weekend series with direct wild-card implications, followed by another contender in Arizona.

• Friday, July 24, 6:40 p.m. ET — Jared Jones (1.20 ERA over three July starts) vs. Matthew Boyd.
• Saturday, July 25, 6:40 p.m. ET — the marquee matchup: Skenes vs. Shota Imanaga.
• Sunday, July 26, 1:35 p.m. ET — Ashcraft, badly needing a reset, draws Jameson Taillon in the finale.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have spent a decade giving their fans reasons to stay cynical, and this week — with its blown leads and bullpen roulette — offered fresh material. But it also offered Skenes dealing, Jones and Chandler racking up zeroes, rookies homering off Gerrit Cole, and a front office actually acting like a buyer in late July. A home stand against the Cubs and Diamondbacks with the deadline looming is the kind of stretch that defines a season, and for the first time in a long time, the Pirates news worth following isn't about next year. It's about the next ten days.