Derek Shelton had to feel a little frustrated and maybe a little jealous as he watched from the visitor’s dugout Saturday at PNC Park.

Shelton now manages the Minnesota Twins after spending the previous five-plus seasons in the same job with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Twins wound up losing a game that the Pirates of the Shelton era were ill-equipped to win.

The Pirates outlasted the Twins 10-9 after blowing a 7-1 lead they had built in the second inning. On Sunday, the Pittsburgh will attempt to sweep the three-game series.

There might not have been even once in Shelton’s 746-game tenure where he could fill out a lineup card with nine legitimate major-league hitters. Between the franchise being in a rebuilding mode and owner Bob Nutting hamstringing general manager Ben Cherington, Shelton had to write down some forgettable names on those lineup cards.

PNC Park public address announcer Guy Junker breaks down the Pirates’ hitters when he reads the starting lineup in the moments leading up to first pitch. An example of that would be five right-handed batters, three left-handed batters, and one switch-hitter.

A wise guy – that would be me – suggested to Junker a few years back that he might want to change things and say something like five legitimate major-league hitters and four guys who should be in Triple-A.

The Pirates’ offense reached its nadir last season when Pittsburgh finished last in the major leagues in runs scored, and Shelton was fired following a 12-26 start. This year, the Pirates’ offense is legitimate, ranking fifth in MLB with 4.95 runs per game after Nutting relented and allowed Cherington to add to the payroll.

Pittsburgh acquired second baseman Brandon Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and signed right fielder Ryan O’Hearn and designated hitter Marcell Ozuna as free agents. The Pirates also had the courage to promote 19-year-old shortstop Konnor Griffin to the major leagues and have gotten internal improvement from first baseman Spencer Horwitz, third baseman Nick Gonzales, left fielder Bryan Reynolds, and center fielder Oneil Cruz.

Thus, the Pirates outscored the Twins on Saturday. The Pirates had 15 hits, including home runs by Horwitz, Mangum, and Cruz, on a day when starting pitcher Mitch Keller blew a six-run lead by giving up seven runs in four innings.

"We’ve shown some good fight,” Pirates manager Don Kelly told reporters. “We’ve talked about adversity. You’re always going to deal with it as you go through a season. You deal with it when you go through games. To have a 7-1 lead, then 7-7, to get up and be able to add on right there, make it 10-7, was really big. We’ve shown really good fight throughout the course of the season and throughout the course of the game today."

Kelly has undoubtedly put the Pirates on the right track, as evidenced by their 31-28 record this season after going 71-91 last year. Of course, it helps to have a lineup capable of producing runs.

Just ask the guy in the other dugout.

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