Preview: Indians Back Home for Battle with Pirates in First Meeting Since 2015

2. Red-Hot Pirates

The Pirates are the hottest team in baseball, coming to Progressive Field on Monday night with a nine-game winning streak, coming off a three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.

They’ve won 11 of their last 12 games, putting them back in the mix for the NL Wild Card, four games back of Milwaukee and Atlanta for the right to reach the postseason.

Left fielder Corey Dickerson is having a great season for Pittsburgh, hitting a team-high .315 with 11 homers and 42 runs batted in.

Sterling Marte (.287, 15 HR 49 RBI), Josh Bell (.269, 5 HR 47 RBI) and Jody Mercer (.254, 5 HR, 31 RBI) are the offensive players to watch after Dickerson.

It’s a team that wasn’t expected to be in the mix as they have been in somewhat of a rebuild mode on the fly after a number of postseason appearances (2013, 2014, 2015) but never making it past the Divisional Round.

While they don’t look like a team built for a playoff run, they are a young team that is making noise and playing very well.

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