On April 29 the Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader in Washington to improve their record to 20-8, giving them the best mark in the National League.
They were the biggest surprise in baseball, manager Derek Shelton had signed a new contract extension and things finally seemed to be looking up for a team and fan-base that has known mostly losing over the past 30 years.
It all proved to be very short-lived.
After their 14-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Monday, the Pirates fell back below the .500 mark for the season as they remain mired in a month-long slump that has seen them go 6-19 and erase all of the goodwill they created at the start.
Not only have the Pirates started to lose games at an alarming rate, they are also playing poor fundamental baseball filled with fielding errors, base-running mishaps and an alarming lack of clutch hitting.
Following Monday’s loss Shelton chalked a lot of it up to being a young team that is struggling to deal with adversity.
“We’re dealing with a bunch of young players,” said manager Derek Shelton. “When it’s going well with young players, everything is OK. When things go a little bit awry, we have to make sure we stay on track. … We’ve still got to continue to learn, we’ve still got to continue to get better, and we’ve got to get back on task a little bit.”