Pittsburgh Pirates using doubles to fuel offensive success

The Pittsburgh Pirates offense has drastically improved in May with impressive bouncebacks by Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison among others. For all of the flash of Starling Marte bombs and Jung Ho Kang timely RBIs, for all of the balls Pedro Alvarez deposits in seaworthy vessels, the key to the offensive output has been the double.

After last night’s action, the Pittsburgh Pirates rank tied for fourth overall in doubles in all of baseball (92) while ranking fifth in MLB in doubles per game (1.96). Both are good for second in the National League. (Of course, the dreaded Cardinals lead the NL in both metrics) The per-game number is a considerable improvement over the 2014 number, in which…