Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: After a miserable May, Pirates must prove they can win at home

Where the Pittsburgh Pirates sounded ready to send Mayday distress signals at the start of their series at San Francisco, they talked like Giants killers after taking two out of three against baseball’s hottest team for their first series win in a month.

The Pirates entered May with a 20-9 record, the best in the National League, and ended it with back-to-back wins that provided salve to the wounds of a month where they went 8-18 and were outscored 137-85.

Somehow, the Pirates (28-27) are one game over .500 and only a game behind the Milwaukee Brewers (29-26) for first place in the NL Central.

“It was a tough month,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show after Wednesday’s 9-4 win over the Giants, who had won 10 of their previous 13 games entering the series. “To finish it strong, I think if you would’ve told me at this point that we were going to be where we’re at, I would’ve taken that.”

That sounds similar to the spin espoused by Pirates general manager Ben Cherington on his weekly radio show this past Sunday. Never mind the free fall, this team is still better than anyone expected!

That’s true. After back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the Pirates were projected to win 67.5 games by BetOnline.ag in March. They are still on an 82-win pace, even though it’s down from their 112-win pace in April.

If the Pirates are anything, it’s unpredictable.

A year ago, they were 22-27 on June 1, riding high after sweeping the Dodgers in Los Angeles for the first time in two decades. The Pirates proceeded to lose 12 of their next 15 games, including nine in a row, as their season spiraled out of control.

The Pirates return Friday to PNC Park for a 10-day, nine-game homestand against the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland A’s and New York Mets, which should serve as a test to see where they stand. The Pirates, however, are one of a handful of MLB teams with a better record on the road (16-14) than at home (12-13) this season.

“I think we learned that it’s a long season,” Shelton said. “When you go through difficult stretches, they keep going and they keep grinding. … We continue to play the game, and I think that’s really important. That’ll be helpful throughout the whole year.”

1. McCutchen milestones: After going 3 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI, Andrew McCutchen enters the homestand with a realistic chance to reach several prominent career milestones.

McCutchen is five hits shy of 2,000 for his career, needs a double for 400 for his career and 300 with the Pirates, a triple for 50 in his career and five home runs to reach 300 for his career.

That he could surpass some, if not all of those marks at PNC Park could make for an eventful 10-day stretch.

“I mean, 2,000 hits is a lot of hits,” Shelton said. “We’re talking about one of the best players in franchise history here. When you get to milestones like that, that’s really important. I’m excited to see him get it.”

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2. For the win: Mitch Keller also reached a milestone with his 400th career strikeout Wednesday against the Giants. He became the first pitcher in Pirates history to record 90 strikeouts before June 1 and the first with eight or more strikeouts in seven consecutive starts.

Keller (7-1, 3.25 ERA) also earned his seventh win in eight decisions Wednesday, becoming the sixth Pirates pitcher to do so before June and first since Gerrit Cole in 2015.

Cole was 7-2 by May 27 and earned the first of his five All-Star appearances on his way to finishing 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA and was fourth in NL Cy Young voting.

Of the other four, only one made the All-Star Game (Kevin Correia in 2011) and one finished in the top 10 of Cy Young voting (Denny Neagle in 1996). Where Neagle was 7-2 by May 31 and finished 16-9 with a 3.50 ERA, Jason Schmidt started 7-1 by May 21, 1998, but finished 11-14 with a 4.07 ERA, Kip Wells started 8-2 by May 29, 2002, but finished 12-14 with a 3.58 ERA and Correia started 7-4 by May 27 but finished 12-11 with a 4.79 ERA.

The Pirates would love to see Keller enter the All-Star and Cy Young conversations.

“The maturation of Mitch Keller has been one of the most exciting things we’ve had this year,” Shelton said. “The way he goes out and competes is really important. I think we’ve seen him grow up and go out and do that.”

3. Two-way street: The Pirates got a combined five RBIs on Wednesday against the Giants from cornerstones Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes, who both had their struggles last month but made big plays in the 9-4 win.

Hayes slashed .208/.248/.323 in May, going 0 for 9 with seven strikeouts in the last two games of the Seattle series. Hayes did not play Monday at San Francisco, though Shelton said it was a scheduled day off during the West Coast road swing.

“With the kind of defender he is,” Shelton said, “it’s hard to give him sit-down days.”

Hayes made what Shelton called an “unbelievably head’s-up play” in the third inning, when he turned a two-run double down the third base line into a triple when he saw the bag uncovered.

“He’s a good ballplayer, man,” Pirates first baseman Connor Joe said. “Really good baseball IQ and really good field awareness, what’s going on. I know he hasn’t been performing the way he expects himself to, but he’s still playing hard and that’s really good to see. He’s a gamer.”

Shelton credited Reynolds for grinding through at-bats, delivering a two-out, two-run single in the fourth and adding another RBI by grounding into a forceout to score Ji Hwan Bae in the sixth.

Reynolds had a game-changing defensive play when he made a leaping catch at the left-field wall to rob Casey Schmitt of an extra-base hit with runners on the corners in the bottom of the sixth, limiting it to a sacrifice fly that kept the score at 6-3.

“We don’t underscore that because it changes the complexion of the game if he doesn’t make that catch,” Shelton said. “We don’t know how the ball caroms off.”

4. What do you know?: Connor Joe was an unsung hero for the Pirates in the San Francisco series, unlikely as that sounds given that he was in the midst of an 0-for-16 funk.

Joe delivered a double in the seventh inning Monday, a solo home run in the first inning Tuesday and went 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI on Wednesday.

After slashing .288/.387/.575 with 13 extra-base hits and 11 RBIs in April, Joe scuffled in May with a .221/.302/.390 slash line and eight extra-base hits and six RBIs.

Joe said he leaned on the support of his teammates and coaches when his performance suffered, especially Shelton.

“Shelty continuing to believe in me and give me the opportunities he had, even when I was struggling,” Joe said, “makes me feel good and feel confident going into every game, no matter what I did the previous day.”

Joe’s biggest contribution came in the field, as he shifted from right field to first base when Carlos Santana was sidelined with a lumbar strain. Joe turned an unassisted double play Tuesday and a 3-6-1 double play in the first inning Wednesday.

“It’s been good. It’s been next-guy-up,” Joe said. “Unfortunately, Carlos has been banged up a little bit. Hopefully, we get him back soon. … I’m just trying to help the team.”

5. Ready to go: When Vince Velasquez returned to the starting rotation from the 15-day injured list, the Pirates raised eyebrows by bumping Roansy Contreras from his scheduled start.

Cherington later revealed plans to leave Luis Ortiz as a starter and move Contreras to the bullpen, with the hopes of providing a boost to Contreras the way it did for Keller a year ago.

“Definitely it’s going to help me out,” Contreras said through interpreter Stephen Morales. “I just have to believe in the process because they’re being good to me. To get back into that rotation, whatever it takes, I’m up for it.”

Contreras made his first relief appearance in 13 months in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to Seattle, throwing two scoreless innings with one hit and one strikeout. Of his 22 pitches, 16 were for strikes. That his fastball velocity increased by a few ticks Contreras attributed to a product of hard work, not fewer innings.

“Definitely it’s going to help me out in many ways to come out of the bullpen in different situations, just to execute my pitches right away,” Contreras said. “In the long run, I think it’s going to help me when I get back to my starting role.”

That appears to be sooner than expected, after Velasquez returned to the 15-day injured list with right elbow discomfort. Contreras is scheduled to start Friday against the Cardinals.