Pirates know the importance of getting off to fast start this season

Pittsburgh Pirates fell short by two wins against St Louis Cardinals from winning the NL Central Crown.By Rob Biertempfel/The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (TNS)Finishing two games behind the St. Louis Cardinals kept the Pirates from winning the NL Central crown last year. Two wins cost them a chance to host the five-game division series instead of being thrust into the winner-take-all wild-card game.Those two extra wins could have come at any point during the six-month season. It might have been easiest to find them in April, the only month in which the Pirates had a losing record.Coming off their breakthrough 2013 season, the Pirates were full of confidence coming out of spring training last year. But they staggered through April, going 10-16 against a slate of division opponents.They lost eight of the final 10 games before flipping the calendar to May. That stretch included a pair of 1-3 series against the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers.“We would never have anticipated that we’d struggle as much in April as we did,” second baseman Neil Walker said. “Maybe we set expectations too high and thought it was going to be easy. We just didn’t play real well. It was a wake-up call for us.”The last time the Pirates had winning April records in consecutive seasons was 1990-92. They ended up with 95-plus victories and won the NL East in each of those three years.In 2013, the Pirates went 15-12 in April. They wound up winning 94 games and reached the playoffs for the first time in two decades.“For us, that was bigger than big -- it was historic,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “But if you want to become elite, you have to continue to do it. We’ve got to continue to be hungry.”It took the Pirates until June last year to rediscover their appetite and surge toward the top of the division standings. This season, they realize the importance of getting off to a strong start.“It felt like (spring training) camp was different this year,” shortstop Jordy Mercer said. “There are more expectations now.“We know we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We haven’t won the division yet, and that’s huge for us. That’s more important than anything, and that’s what our camp was all about. We want to win the division, get to that five-game (division) series and see what can happen.”This year’s April schedule does not seem especially daunting. Thirteen of 22 games are against NL Central foes. Their only opponent that had a winning record last year is the Detroit Tigers, who play a three-game set at PNC Park.“This is when we start creating separation,” pitcher Jeff Locke said. “You’ve got to do it early. You hear people talk about meaningful games in late August and September. Well, opening day is pretty meaningful. The second game is pretty meaningful. They all count the same in the end.”