Consistency

Doing things well consistently has seemingly alluded the Pirates in the past decade and a half. Instead they have consistently done things the wrong way. They have been consistently bad.

This season the team has not done much of anything consistently other than be inconsistent. Take for instance the offense. It was ice cold for the first 2 plus games against the White Sox, then explode against the Cubs. Then after putting up a 10 spot, they go cold again in a rain shortened game.

The pitching from most of the starters has been somewhat consistent, with an exception being Ian Snell. Snell may be holding the moniker of the most frustrating Pirate. He'll show flashes of the rather dominating Ian Snell, but then other times he looks like he did tonight. Most will expect to see ups and downs with players, but with Snell it seems to be great peaks and valleys.

Two players have seemingly started to become a little more consistent offensively. One is Freddy Sanchez, he of the 6-6 game bringing back memories of Wally Backman. After going through a drought offensively, he has picked it up and has been a man on a mission at the plate.

The other has done it oh so quietly, that I barely even noticed. Andy LaRoche, yes the whipping boy of the early going, has somehow climbed to be around .300 with his batting average. He currently is standing at .303. I highly doubt anyone would have thought that he would climb out of the giant hole that he dug for himself earlier this season. I know I would have never thought that by June he would be where he is.

Hopefully the good Pirates show up tomorrow so that they can get a series win, before returning home for the Astros. Hopefully they can also rack up the wins against the 'stros as well.