PIRATES

This afternoon's 5-0 loss to the Brewers wasn't the way the Pirates wanted to end their six-game road trip. They had their first road sweep of their division rival in 10 years in their sights and fell well short, striking out a whopping 18 times and allowing five fourth-inning runs to finish their trip through Texas and Milwaukee with a lackluster 3-3 record. 

But throughout this early portion of the season, Don Kelly has preached the importance of each day, each game. That's led to players operating with a short memory, regardless of the result. If there are big wins like the ones they secured the last two nights here at American Family Field, they take a few hours to celebrate and then move on. If there's a loss like the one here today, they reflect and look ahead instead of dwelling on the past.

Guys like Jake Mangum, Paul Skenes and Spencer Horwitz have talked about this group's tendency to treat every day like a fresh start. After his spectacular performance in Friday's series opener, Skenes praised the way the team responded to a loss the night before, one in which Bubba Chandler struggled and the offense was limited. Based on how the players were feeling after Skenes' performance and Konnor Griffin's three-hit birthday celebration, one probably couldn't tell that this was a team that performed rather poorly the night before. They believed they would respond accordingly, and did just that. 

"We've got a lot of ball players, a lot of gritty, dirtbag ballplayers that are going to do whatever it takes to win," Skenes said after I brought up this particular subject on Friday. "It's tough. You face (Jacob) deGrom, it's Jacob deGrom. It's gonna happen. And you show up the next day, and Brandon Woodruff has had success against us. All the hitters in the lineup are kind of like, screw that, it's time to go. And there are a lot of other factors in it that the normal fan probably doesn't understand, too. You guys probably got in late last night or early this morning or something, too. Kind of a tough set of circumstances, I guess, and we did a really good job responding. It's April. We've seen that already this season, and we're kind of still finding our identity and still finding who we are and our mojo. It's gonna be really fun to watch and be a part of the next six months."

I approached Horwitz about this subject that same night, and he told me that he thinks they've shown resiliency because they've managed to never get too high or too low. Guys are playing loose, they're being themselves, and they're believing in each other and how they can win ballgames, whether it be via strong pitching performances like the ones put forth on this road trip by Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft and Mitch Keller, or through collective hitting displays that have helped them become the seventh-best run-scoring offense (135) in Major League Baseball. That continued belief is a big reason why they're 16-12, as opposed to 11-17, the record they held at the 28-game mark last season. 

"We've got a lot of good baseball players in this clubhouse and on any given night, any one of them could come through and win a ballgame," Nick Yorke told me. "There's a lot of belief in one another to come through for each other. Everyone has each other's backs in here, so if one person's struggling, another person's going well. You're on the front step cheering them on and vice versa." 

This group is also driven by a common goal of winning. They want to do that on a nightly basis and, in turn, win when the games take on larger meaning down the road. We're a ways away from that, but there's a genuine belief that the type of baseball the team is playing is sustainable. That’s why playing loose and having a mindset focused on what’s next rather than what’s happened in the past is so important. Dwelling on disappointing results will get this team nowhere. Actually, it would probably put them in positions they’ve become familiar with in the past. Focusing on what they can control in the present, though, will ultimately lead to sustained success. 

"There are 26 guys in here and everybody has the same end goal," Brandon Lowe told me. "There's no one looking at it where I want to do this personal goal of mine. Everyone's got the same idea, the same will to want to go out and win as many games as possible and at the end of the year, we all want to be in the World Series and win a World Series. That's everything kind of going together. Everybody wants the same thing at the end of the day, and that makes things a lot easier." 

There was a different feel in the Pirates clubhouse when they first arrived in Bradenton, Fla. for spring training in February and there's still a positive feel surrounding the club now. Lowe says they're not the same, though. Back then, there was excitement surrounding what the team was capable of. Now, it's more of a belief that this is, in fact, a good team that can win now and achieve their common goal of competing for something bigger down the line. 

"We're very talented, and we have the ability in here," Lowe said. "We have the guys in here to go and put together a pretty special season. I think the belief is that we're going to go out there, play good baseball, and we're gonna put a good product out there on the field."