The Pirates swept the White Sox on the South Side, won their fourth straight game and climbed back over.500 for the first time since July 29. They held Chicago to five runs in three games and have now won five straight series, a burst that keeps their late chase alive even as the margin for error stays thin.
That is why Pirates Vs Cubs is drawing attention now. Pittsburgh is 11-4 since Aug. 24, while only the Dodgers have been hotter over the same stretch. The Cubs enter the series still tied to a different race, trailing the Phillies by one game for the top wild card spot, with both teams down to 15 games left and the Cubs holding the tiebreaker.
For Pittsburgh, the surge has been driven in part by Oneil Cruz. Since returning on Aug. 18 after missing two months with a hand injury, he is batting.315 with a.404 slugging percentage, four home runs and 18 RBIs. He drove in both runs Thursday and also launched a solo homer that left the bat at 117.4 miles per hour, the kind of single-game damage that can change the feel of a clubhouse and a box score at the same time.
The larger picture is less forgiving. The Pirates are still 4.5 games back of the San Diego Padres for the final wild card with 15 games left, so the recent run has moved them from buried to relevant, not from chasing to safe. They were six games under.500 on both Aug. 13 and Aug. 23, which makes the climb impressive, but it also shows how much ground they still have to make up in very little time.
There is also a bruise in the middle of the momentum. Braxton Ashcraft went on the 15-day injured list Thursday with right arm discomfort, leaving the Pirates to piece together the next three games with Wilber Dotel starting Friday, Paul Skenes on Saturday and Bubba Chandler opposite Matthew Boyd in Sunday’s finale. Khristian Curtis and recently recalled Antwone Kelly are available in bulk roles, a sign that Pittsburgh may have to lean on depth while the rotation sorts itself out.
The matchup pressure is real on both sides. Shōta Imanaga has allowed only one run in 38 career innings against Pittsburgh for a 0.24 ERA, and the Cubs have their own pitching shape to manage with Clay Holmes carrying a 3.51 ERA through his first six starts and Boyd waiting for Sunday. Pittsburgh has turned itself into a live story again, but the next step is the hard one: keep winning fast enough to make 15 games feel like enough.
