PITTSBURGH – Baseball is a game full of numbers that dictate milestones. With Thursday being the 81st game of a 162-game marathon, the Pirates haven’t produced a first half of this caliber in a decade.
A 5-1 win over the Mariners at PNC Park gave Pittsburgh a 41-40 record at the midway point of the season. Brandon Lowe and Henry Davis combined for four hits and four RBIs while Bubba Chandler pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run baseball.
The Pirates have faced plenty of injury trouble, from missing starter Jared Jones for the first two months to losing key offensive weapons Konnor Griffin, Oneil Cruz and now Spencer Horwitz. Yet Pittsburgh has managed to stay afloat as it enters a pivotal second half, increasing its win total by 9 from last season at this point and accomplishing its best first half since 2015, the last time it reached the postseason.
“There's a better team that we'll see in the second half; they're more consistent,” manager Don Kelly said. “We need to play better in order to get to where we want to go. We're in a good spot, but we're not there yet.”
The Pirates finished 2025 in last place in key offensive categories. They invested in the offseason to fix the issue, trading for Lowe and signing Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna.
Lowe has been everything Pittsburgh could ask for and more, tallying 19 home runs and 51 RBIs while improving his defense. He punctuated his stellar first half in the bottom of the first inning Thursday, blasting a solo shot off Mariners starter Bryce Miller. Lowe is proud of what he and the team have produced, though the veteran knows there’s a higher potential to reach.
“Every person in the world wants to be 20 games over [.500], or whatever the best record in baseball is right now. But that’s not the reality of our situation,” Lowe said. “There are definitely some games there that, both sides of the ball, we probably lost versus gotten beat, and everybody in here knows it. We understand it, and we move forward. We're more cognizant of it, and if we don't make those kinds of mistakes anymore, we win a lot more ball games.”
Ozuna has not yet lived up to his one-year, $12 million contract, hitting just .201 and playing sparingly. O’Hearn, however, despite missing a few weeks with a quad strain, has consistently added thump to the middle of the order. The Pirates' offense has blossomed into one of the best around, entering Thursday with the most hits (713) and the third-highest OPS (.748) in baseball.
What could make for an improved second half is reloading the lineup. Lowe said he and O’Hearn talked about the prospect of Pittsburgh’s lineup at full strength after Wednesday night’s 11-run barrage with no home runs. Lowe described the team as “scary” once weapons like Griffin and Cruz return.
In the meantime, expected role players like Horwitz, Nick Gonzales and Jake Mangum have each improved to add to the usual power of Lowe, O’Hearn and Bryan Reynolds – who has reached base in every game since May 23. Horwitz’s absence will create another obstacle.
Reynolds is the longest-tenured position player on the Pirates. He said this season is different from past first halves, but there’s still plenty of baseball left.
“Do I think that we're better than a .500 baseball team through 81 games? Yeah, absolutely,” said Mangum, who filled into the leadoff spot for Horwitz on Thursday. “But at the same time, we're still learning how to win, and we haven't played our best baseball yet. If I could pick a time to play your best baseball, it's the second half.”
With an improved offense, Pittsburgh’s pitching will need to step up to turn the tide and break the second-longest postseason drought in the Majors. Under first-year pitching coach Bill Murphy, Paul Skenes and the starting rotation have taken a slight step back, moving from a 3.71 ERA last season to 3.90 thus far in 2026.
The Pirates' bullpen continues to perform in utter disarray, still searching for answers to leave the basement of the National League. Any progress would put Pittsburgh in a better position, and with the trade deadline looming, an additional relief pitcher could be a game-changer.
In his first full season as the Pirates manager, Kelly is optimistic about what lies ahead while still cognizant of needed developments. He described his squad as resilient in overcoming injury woes, but acknowledged the inability to come up with big hits with runners in scoring position has plagued multiple winning opportunities.
Kelly looked to the Marlins' recent hot streak as a possible outline. Miami was 26-34 entering June, and has gone 16-5 in the month since, altering the trajectory of its season.
Following Pittsburgh’s weekend series against the Reds, they’ll play 25 consecutive games against teams with a current record of .500 or better. It won’t be easy. But halfway through 2026, the Pirates are in better shape than they have been in a long time.
“Once it clicks and you start to go, it can add up fast,” Kelly said. “We just need to stay right there, and continue to grind and compete to allow ourselves to get to that point.”