Ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your questions and comments from his inbox and respond on Cincinnati.com. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com
Subject: C’mon, it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates!
Message: It (ticks) me off the Reds keep losing to the Pirates. It’s the Pirates, for God’s sake!
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Reply: This is an ingrained way of thinking in Cincinnati that needs to change. We all need to stop looking down on the Pirates and thinking of them as easy wins on the schedule.
Why haven’t the Pirates earned our respect? They’re now 36-25 vs. the Reds since 2022 after taking 2 of 3 against Cincinnati this week. In the past decade, the Reds have almost as many last-place finishes in the NL Central (four) as the Pirates (five). The Reds have lost the season series to the Pirates 5 of the last 8 years.
Pittsburgh has won a playoff series more recently than the Reds. That was in 2013, when the Pirates beat the Reds in the wild-card game. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati each have the same amount of World Series titles (five). The Pirates have never won the NL Central, formed ahead of the strike-shortened 1994 season. The Reds have officially only won that division three times.
And yet we continue to wallow in the c’mon, it’s the friggin’ Pirates attitude.
Some fans look down at ace Paul Skenes and Pittsburgh, but the fact is, the Pirates have a 35-24 record against the Reds.
Perhaps it speaks to Cincinnati’s sports inferiority complex. We have to be better than at least one other team, right? So we’ve convinced ourselves the Pirates are that team, and therefore the Reds should regularly win series against Pittsburgh.
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Well, the Pirates have the NL’s best pitcher in Paul Skenes, who is 5-0 with an 0.53 ERA in six career starts vs. the Reds. And the Pirates have baseball’s top prospect in 19-year-old shortstop Konnor Griffin, who is scheduled to make his big-league debut on April 3.
Sure doesn’t sound like a team to take lightly.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds fans should stop looking down on Pittsburgh Pirates