Just when you thought the 2024 Pirates were done, finished, washed up, and sunk to the bottom of the Allegheny River, they go and give us hope.

Hope for a possible Buctober? Don’t be silly. Hell, they shot that hope to pieces when they lost 10 in a row and 15 out of 19 right after what was supposed to be a very transformative MLB trade deadline (it was). No, but that sunk to the bottom of the Allegheny River thing? There is still time to be rescued…metaphorically speaking, of course.

The Pirates may still be eight games out of the final wildcard slot in the National League, but they’re now just one-half game from moving out of last place in the National League Central Division thanks to back-to-back wins over the fourth-place Reds to open a four-game weekend series at PNC Park.

The Buccos won the first game of the series on Thursday night thanks to yet another impressive pitching performance by rookie Paul Skenes, who six went scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out nine batters and walking one. The bullpen added three more shutout innings, as the Pirates won by a score of 7-0. Who was the hitting star? None other than Bryan De La Cruz, aka Mr. No Extra Bases Hits. That may have become his name during his short time as a Pirate, but De La Cruz failed to live up to it on Thursday when he went three for fourth with two doubles. One of those doubles drove in three runs as part of a sixth-run fifth inning that blew the game wide open. Skenes obviously got the win to improve to 8-2 on the year. His ERA is now 2.16. Skenes probably has five or six starts left before his rookie season ends, and it will be interesting to see if he begins to get any serious buzz for the Cy Young Award. The Rookie of the Year is a no-brainer, but the Cy Young right out of the gate? That would be something.

Thursday’s shutout was Pittsburgh’s second in three games. The Buccos actually allowed just one run over that span, yet, they only went 2-1. If I had to point to an anecdote to sum up the 2024 Pittsburgh Pirates at season’s end, it would be the time they allowed one run over three games and lost one of those games.

As for Game 2 of the series against Cincinnati on Friday night, it was a little more exciting. Bailey Falter took the mound. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t horrible, either.

The Reds got on the board quickly when Tyler Stephenson homered with two outs in the top of the first inning. But Falter struck two batters in that inning and two more in the top of the second. However, the Reds continued to peck away at Falter until finally breaking through with four runs in the top of the fourth. Even then, it wasn’t like Cincinnati was knocking the cover off the ball. Falter allowed an infield single to Stephenson, followed by a double that put runners on second and third with nobody out. The Reds scored their second run on a sacrifice play to right field and their third on a squeeze play. Third baseman Santiago Espinal then seemingly broke the game wind open with a single that drove in two more runs to make it 5-0, visitors.

But just when it looked like the Pirates were done scoring for the weekend, they countered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth inning. Joey Bart and Rowdy Tellez led off the inning with back-to-back singles. De La Cruz, Mr. Extra Base Hit, followed with a double to score Bart and give the Pirates their first run of the evening. Billy McKinney, a new guy just called up from the minors, drove in the second run with a ground out to second base that scored Tellez. Jared Triolo then singled to center field to score De La Cruz and make it 5-3, them. The Pirates made it 5-4 when Triolo scored on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa ground out to the shortstop.

The Pirates completed their comeback in the bottom of the sixth. Oneil Cruz led off with a ground-rule double. Bart then singled to drive in Cruz with the tying run. Tellez followed with a single to right that allowed Bart to reach third base, and that man again, De La Cruz, hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Bart with the go-ahead run to make it 6-5.

Would it be the winning run? Of course, I already spoiled that, but that doesn’t mean David Bednar didn’t make things a little interesting in the top of the ninth inning. Bednar allowed a leadoff double and a two-out walk but managed to secure the final out for his 23rd save of the season.

The back-to-back wins improve the Pirates record to 61-67. They must sweep Cincinnati to ensure they exit the series in fourth place.

It’s up to Jake Woodford to keep the momentum going, as he is set to take the mound for Game 3 of the series at PNC Park on Saturday night with the first pitch set for 6:40 p.m. EST.