Believe it or not, despite their uneven play so far this year, the Pirates are within a game of first place in the NL Central in the MLB standings.
↵Reds 9-8
↵Brewers 9-8
↵Cardinals 8-8
↵Cubs 8-8
↵Pirates 8-9
↵Astros 6-11
↵Taking three out of four from a good Reds team certainly helped the Pirates. But they'll need to continue to beat good teams to stay afloat - the Bucs have two more games against a decent Marlins team, followed by a series against the Nationals, and then there are series against the best teams in the NL West in the Rockies (who already beat up on the Bucs quite badly earlier this year) and the Giants. Also, there's the fact that the Pirates have allowed 16 more runs than they scored, not a good indication that they're actually competitive (the only two NL teams who have done worse in that category this year have been the Mets and Dodgers).
↵But hey - maybe Pedro Alvarez's bat wakes up, Kevin Correia and Charlie Morton keep their good starts going, and the Pirates stick around into the summer. We can dream, right?