Pirates need Reynolds to stay hot in July if they want to stay in Wild Card race

The Pirates are heading into July well within striking distance of a Wild Card spot for the postseason.

A nice winning streak going into the All-Star Break would help. They have a chance to make an impact in both the Wild Card and Divisional races with the last 13 games before the break.

They’ll play three games against their divisional/wild card race foes, the St. Louis Cardinals at home for three.

They then host the. 500 New York Mets for four games over the holiday weekend. The Mets are currently 1.5 games out of the third Wild Card, which the Cardinals currently hold.

The Bucs then hit the road for three against the division leading Brewers and end the first half against the lowly Chicago White Sox.

The Pirates are currently 40-43 and 3 games out of the Wild Card, tied with San Francisco.

The Pirates went 14-12 in June, thanks, in part, to continued solid starting pitching along with the hot bats of an awakening Rowdy Tellez and Bryan Reynolds.

Reynolds continued his trend of having a hot June, hitting .330 and 25 straight games with at least one hit.

Reynolds batted .268 in June 2023 and .333 in June 2022.

If they Pirates want to continue to stay in the race, they need Reynolds to not fall off like he has in July the past two seasons, hitting only .200 both years.

With an offense still struggling to produce runs, you can’t go from .330 to .200 and expect the team to go two games over .500 in July like they did in June.