Pittsburgh Pirates Slim Playoff Hopes No Longer in Their Own Hands

The only thing that a team can ask for in the middle of September is to be playing meaningful baseball with a chance to extend their season into October.

Technically, the Pittsburgh Pirates are still in that exact situation. They’re still technically in the Wild Card hunt in the National League and are 4.5 games out of the final spot.

However, Pittsburgh has reached the point in the season where their playoff hopes are no longer in their own hands. If the Pirates want to play October baseball, they’ll need to keep winning, but need a lot of help from their opponents to climb the ladder in the standings.

This past weekend was a perfect example of how the Pirates need outside help to jump ahead of the teams in the playoff race.

On Friday, ahead of their series against the Los Angeles Angels, FanGraphs' playoff model gave Pittsburgh a 3.0 percent chance of reaching the postseason. Then, the Pirates went out and won two of three games.

One would think that number would improve after a series victory. Right?

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Pittsburgh.

On Monday, the Pirates' chances of reaching the postseason fell to 0.8 percent.

This is the reality that the Pirates now face at this point in the season. As it stands, Pittsburgh would need to jump the St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks with just18 games remaining (including Tuesday) to punch their ticket to October.

The math says there’s a chance, but history says it’s fading quickly.

It’s a daunting task, but Don Kelly keeps preaching that the team brings a “1-0” mindset to the ballpark every day, and it looks like that’s showing at least some positive returns. The Pirates have actually won their last four series.

Who knows? Perhaps the Pirates do still have some magic in them to stun all of MLB and get back to the postseason. Konnor Griffin is finally off the injured list, and Ryan O’Hearn is right behind him.

That said, the only way the Pirates could reach the postseason is if they keep winning and the teams ahead of them all hit a losing streak at the same time.