DENVER -- Starling Marte will lead the Pirates to the playoffs.
"That's my goal," he was telling me Friday afternoon, before that 13-5 romp over the Rockies at Coors Field. "Playoffs. First place. I want to lead my team there."
So, he went out and rapped two singles, was hit by a pitch, stole two bases and scored a career-high four runs out of the leadoff spot.
And didn't remotely stand out.
Which in the context of this incredible surge for the Pirates as a collective -- six wins in a row, nine in their past 10, 12 of their past 14, a game over .500 for the first time since April 9 and, yes, somehow, within two games of the just-swept Brewers for the Central lead -- is probably instructive.
Because it won't be Marte who leads them, even if his motivation is well-founded after being suspended 80 games for cheating. It won't be Andrew McCutchen or Josh Bell, even though those two stayed torrid by combining for seven hits and seven RBIs on this night. It won't be the starting pitching, even though Trevor Williams overcame three first-inning runs to last through 6 2/3 and keep the rotation's ERA during this winning streak at a still-solid 2.73. It won't be the singularly spectacular Felipe Rivero or the bullpen, either.
It won't be any of them.
It'll be all of them.
"We don't have any heroes in here," Francisco Cervelli told me after three hits of his own, including a breathtaking -- literally, in his case -- triple into Coors' center-field acreage. "That's not how we're built. That's not how this team works. We all have to contribute. That's what's happening right now. We're all contributing."
Including, at least on this occasion, the offense. The first five games of the winning streak were all by margins of two runs or less, and each required a comeback. This one had a rally, too, but it came in the top of the second when the lead was staked for good on Bell's bases-clearing double that made it 5-3:
Overall there were 18 hits, six walks and -- yikes -- four hit batsmen not named Josh Harrison. Bell went 4 for 6 with four RBIs, McCutchen 3 for 4 with two walks and three RBIs.
I nearly forgot Jordy Mercer's 444-foot home run in the sixth ...
... which had absolutely, positively nothing to do with the mile-high altitude that regularly takes balls into orbit:
"It's a friendly ballpark for hitters," Clint Hurdle said, this from experience, having managed here. "But we took some good approaches to the plate, had some good swings. It was nice to see."
It's going to be needed. Not 28 baserunners a night, but the group contribution. Because the fact remains that these Pirates, on July 3 in Philadelphia, were nine games under .500 and reasonably, maybe rightfully, left for dead by all but the most diehard optimists. And if we're being candid, that occurred because they just aren't dynamic or deep enough to succeed the way they have of late unless all cylinders are lit.
Not even McCutchen, now batting .389 over his past 26 games and all the way back as a bona fide superstar, is capable of going it alone. Not tangibly or intangibly.
"Andrew's our leader in the example that he sets," Mercer told me. "But we're not that team that's just following one guy. If you look around, we've got a lot of guys here who are about the same age, some of us who've been playing together for a long time. We know what we're about. We know what the other guy's about. When we show up every day, we don't need anyone going all rah-rah on us. We know what we need to do every day."
Marte, seated at the next stall, felt obligated to chime in: "We want to get to first place. I want that. He wants that. We all want that."
DK'S THREE THOUGHTS
1. Two pitchers in a trip opener at Coors? Yeah, that's OK.
Williams did his thing, and Jhan Marinez wrapped it up with the final 2 1/3. Neither had his pitching line spared -- that's life at Coors -- but both achieved something maybe even more significant than assisting in this outcome: They kept the rest of the bullpen from so much as standing and tossing. And with two more games here, followed by six through San Francisco and San Diego, that's pretty paramount.
"That's huge," Hurdle replied when I raised the topic. "To have that now, with what's ahead of us, yeah, we'll take it."
He then described having to settle Ray Searage after Williams' harrowing start in which Colorado's first four batters reached safely.
"He was all the way up against the bar of the dugout, and I'm, like, 'Ray, go sit down, man! Go sit down!' Sometimes you've just got to get 100 pitches out of your starter. This was one of those times. Trevor was outstanding."
Williams' pitch count was a career-high 104.
2. Fun is good.
Marinez finally found his first big-league hit with a lashed double to right-center in the eighth. Or, as Hurdle painted it, "Marinez went up there with no clue and doubled." Upon touching second, Marinez turned toward the dugout and essentially joined everyone else in looking toward poor Ivan Nova, who's 1 for 38 at the plate with two dozen strikeouts.
"Everyone had to share with Nova how easy it is to hit," Hurdle said. "I mean, everyone."
3. Why not?
The Brewers, their balloon having been popped in Pittsburgh, have now lost six in a row. The Cubs, still the favorite, are one game ahead. It hardly requires some massive leap of faith to count the Pirates as contenders, especially since they can be tied with Chicago by, you know, nightfall.
Even the wild card doesn't seem inconceivable. The Diamondbacks hold one of those and seem legit, with a plus-144 run differential that authenticates their 56-40 record. But these Rockies are only 5 1/2 games up on the Pirates for the other spot, and their plus-44 has a far iffier feel.
McCutchen gave one of his trademark shrugs when asked about the race.
"When we play our best baseball," he said, "we can play with anyone."
ON DECK
The Pirates haven't won seven in a row since a streak exactly that long June 29-July 6 of last season. Chad Kuhl will face another youngster, rookie righty German Marquez, to try to claim the series.