SAN DIEGO — Thursday’s 11-5 win at Petco Park extended the Pittsburgh Pirates’ winning streak to seven games — their longest streak since they won nine straight games from June 20-30, 2013.
During the winning streak, Pirates pitchers have a 1.86 ERA with the starting pitchers going 7-0 with a 1.95 ERA.
“It’s kind of funny,” said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle of the seven wins by the starting pitchers in the streak. “It just depends on when you score runs. We’ve been scoring a lot of runs early. Tonight we scored in each of the first four innings.
“It’s just one of those strange sequences of the game. But it’s nice to see the starters getting wins when they are pitching as well as they have.”
Speaking of wins, right-handed starter A.J. Burnett, 38, got his 160th win in his career Thursday night — which is the fifth-highest total among active pitchers. Burnett is 5-0 in May, marking only the second time in his career that he has had a 5-0 month.
He has a 1.84 ERA this month with 39 strikeouts against 13 walks in 39 2/3 innings. He has allowed only eight earned runs this month.