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E-mailYoung Bucs enjoy winning feeling
The Pirates' month-by-month record in 2009:
Month -- W-L
April -- 11-10
May -- 11-18
June -- 14-13
July -- 8-17
x-August -- 9-14
x-through Thursday
Ronny Cedeno
Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review
Rob Biertempfel is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Pirates beat writer. He can be reached at 412-320-7811 or via e-mail.
MILWAUKEE -- It's difficult to find a player on the Pirates' roster who did not come up big at least once during the just-completed 7-2 homestand.
Andy LaRoche, Garrett Jones and Ronny Cedeno got it started with homers in the first game against Milwaukee. The starting pitchers reeled off five straight wins. Lastings Milledge and Luis Cruz made fine defensive plays. And there were more clutch homers by Ryan Doumit, Steve Pearce and Andrew McCutchen.
"It's not just one guy all the time," manager John Russell said Friday. "Different guys are coming up with different things at big moments, and that's good to see. There's more of the team atmosphere that we've been looking for since we made the trades."
In a way, the 2-12 tailspin immediately after the Pirates' flurry of deadline deals was not surprising. The roster had been gutted.
What was left was a mish-mosh of players from different teams, different systems and even different levels of the minors.
"A lot of times when trades happen, things don't go as planned," outfielder Brandon Moss said. "But eventually, good things happen.
"First, you've got to learn personalities -- where everybody's at and who everybody is. A team is not something that can be built in a day. You learn guys, you build friendships, and then you become teammates. It's an evolving process. That's part of building a new team."
Simply being together in the clubhouse and on the field every day is a big part of it. Winning helps, too.
The past seven victories were especially important. The Pirates swept the Brewers, a team they hadn't beaten in a while. They took two of three against Cincinnati, the team just ahead of them in the NL Central standings.
And the Pirates beat the Phillies, the defending World Series champs twice and lost the third game in extra innings.
"It shows us that we can compete with those teams," McCutchen said. "This isn't spring training when (the starters) only play the first four innings. This is real.
"That whole homestand, we were in every game. If we can compete with the Phillies, we can compete with anybody. It gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season and going into next year."
