Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Manager Clint Hurdle held up a binder Friday afternoon as part of his explanation of the Pirates' offensive improvement.

"We didn't have many red [hot] spots offensively for two months," he said. "In here, I got every Marlin hitter where we don't want to throw it. We didn't have a whole lot of those. Now everybody starts hitting, whether it's contagious or not, all of a sudden more mistakes are made for whatever reason. It kind of goes hand in hand."

The difference in the past month and a half, Hurdle said, is that the Pirates began to hit mistake pitches, pitches they missed during the period of offensive ineffectiveness in April and May.

"We were missing a lot of good pitches to hit, fouling balls off, just not taking advantage of their mistakes," Rod Barajas said.

The Pirates entered a game Friday against the Miami Marlins with 85 runs scored in July, the most in the majors, after leading the majors with 146 runs in June.

Barajas said the Pirates are not being pitched much differently after their offensive improvement, referencing a relatively unchanged walk rate.

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