6 up 6 Down: Your 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates

Just over a week ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates were riding a six-game winning streak, having swept two series while allowing four runs. Today, they are mired in a six-game losing streak, having been swept in back-to-back series while scoring a total of nine runs. This is the signature of a Ben Cherington-built team.

This “6 up, 6 down” whiplash is the perfect encapsulation of his roster-building and offensive philosophy. The reality of a fundamentally broken offense brings it all crashing down.

The Anatomy of a Mirage

The two streaks tell a complete story. The six consecutive wins were a testament to the pitching staff, a brief period where elite performance on the mound masked every other deficiency. And they even displayed some decent offense in there. But a team cannot keep flying so close to the sun. The ensuing six-game losing streak was a correction, as a non-functional offense reasserted its dominance over the team’s fate. Being swept by both the Mariners and Royals was simply the inevitable result.

When a team’s only path to victory requires its pitchers to be nearly perfect, it has no real path to sustained success. The winning streak was the mirage.

A Blueprint for Failure

This pattern of creating just enough hope to make the eventual collapse more painful is not new. It is the blueprint of the Cherington era. In 2023, a hot start dissolved into a summer of losing. In 2024, a post-deadline record of 56-54 was immediately followed by a 10-game losing streak that torpedoed the season. Both once-promising campaigns ended with the same result: 76-86.

The formula has been consistent under Cherington, and that’s to build a team so reliant on its pitching that any regression to the mean on the mound, or any encounter with a competent opponent, usually leads to losses.

The 2025 Verdict

The 2025 season is merely the most honest iteration of this failed experiment. There was no hot start or flirtation with a .500 record. The team has been buried in the standings since mid-April for one simple reason. The offense is terrible. Currently last in baseball in home runs and OPS, and second to last in runs scored, the lineup is so bad that even the pitching staff’s best efforts can barely sustain the illusion of competence.

The upcoming series against the Twins before the All-Star break is irrelevant. This “6 up, 6 down” stretch has already delivered the verdict on this team. Hell, the games before this delivered the verdict. It is a roster built to break your heart with a philosophy that doesn’t work.