National League All-Star Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals
pitches to the American League All-Star team during the fourth inning in
Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in Kansas City, Missouri,
July 10. — Dave Kaup/Reuters

Surprise! The Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nats are in first – for now

At the MLB All-Star break, Pittsburgh and Washington have shed their losing images in a 2012 season marked by an uncommon number of brilliant pitching performances. Can the Pirates and Nats keep it up?

by Ross Atkin, Staff / July 11, 2012

— reposted here by Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports columnist

Quick. Look before it’s too late. The Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that has
floundered through 19 straight losing seasons, is in first place in
baseball’s National League Central division.

Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen watches his second two-run home run of the game leave the park during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Pittsburgh on July 8. The Pirates won 13-2.

Gene J. Puskar/AP

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The last time they made the
playoffs, in 1992, a much
thinner Barry Bonds was the
team’s top star. That was also
the last time the Pirates had
a winning record at the
All-Star break – until a year
ago, when they fizzled out
after a surprising first-half
start.

Now, as the second half of
the current season begins,
Pittsburgh fans will hold their
breath, hoping that MVP
candidate Andrew
McCutchen (.362 batting
average and 18 home runs)
can remain hot.

On the other side of
Pennsylvania, the Phillies
have been perhaps the
season’s biggest
disappointment. After five
straight seasons as
champions of the National
League East, Philadelphia
is scraping bottom, 14 games
behind the division-leading
Washington Nationals. The
cellar dwellers have already
lost 50 games after losing
only 60 all last season.

The Phillies’ demise is partly
a factor of injuries (all-stars
Ryan Howard and Chase
Utley and Roy Halladay,have
missed most of the season), but that can’t easily explain why it’s so
badly underachieving.

At this point, the Washington Nationals own the largest lead of any
first-place National League team (four games). The Pirates are only up
a half game onCincinnati, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, under new
ownership, are a mere half game ahead of the San Francisco Giants.

Since the Nationals franchise began as the Montreal Expos in 1969,
it is one of only three teams that have never been to the World Series
(Houston and Seattlebeing the others). Now, however, it’s hardly
far-fetched to imagine Washington making it to the Fall Classic, if not
this year, then sometime soon. After all, the Nats own the best
winning percentage (.590) in the National League.
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