PIT Post-Gazette: Pirates’ split foils streak, bid for .500

And the Pirates… fell just short of finding the franchise’s holy grail of a .500 record, settling for a doubleheader split yesterday with the Atlanta Braves, a 5-0 shutout and an 8-1 loss.

The opener, highlighted by another quality start from Zach Duke and a bases-clearing double by Freddy Sanchez, brought a six-game winning streak, the Pirates’ longest in four years.
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Will another chance [at .500] come? To be quite sure, this group sounded optimistic, partly because of the 6-1 homestand just completed, partly because they had taken three of four from an Atlanta team that carried its own six-game winning streak into this series ...

“Things are really different,” center fielder Nate McLouth said. “Not to look at the past, but how many times around here have we looked back at that one point where we could have gone above .500 and didn’t? That’s not going to be the case here. We’re right there. Look at where we were a week ago and how we’ve played since then.”

The Pirates came home from Washington 12-17.