Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of the game.As long as Paul Skenes pitches for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he will always be their headliner. He is just that good.“The last stretch, it’s almost like he’s just decided, ‘All right, not only am I going to have really good stuff to punch a lot of guys out, but I’m not going to walk anybody and I’m not going to give up any hits,’” general manager Ben Cherington said this week, after Skenes’ second consecutive outing of eight shutout innings, with no walks and two hits allowed.“His overall production last year was elite, but he’s been even more efficient this year in terms of how many pitches he’s using. It really is a remarkable combination of physical skill, raw stuff, lots of pitches, high-end compete level, command and sequencing.”Skenes is the constant from last season to this one, dominant as ever, leading the majors in WHIP (0.64), strikeout-to-walk ratio (8-to-1) and hits per nine innings (4.5) with a 1.98 ERA. But while the Pirates’ thin offense doomed him to a 10-10 record last season, Skenes is 6-2 in 2026.The vastly improved lineup isn’t just making Skenes look better. It has helped the Pirates to a 24-20 start and positioned them as true contenders for the first time in a decade.Through Thursday, Pittsburgh was averaging five runs per game. No Pirate team has finished a season averaging five runs per game since Debs Garms was winning the batting title in 1940. Generations of great hitters — from Kiner to Clemente to Stargell to Parker to Bonds to McCutchen — have come and gone since the Pirates produced like this.“The simplest thing is we’re deeper, and we have fewer guys that are struggling as big-league hitters,” Cherington said. “I think it’s sustainable, because I actually don’t believe we’ve gotten to our best offense yet. We’re not quite clicking against left-handed starters.”Critically, though, center fielder Oneil Cruz is hitting .327 against lefties, who held him to a confounding .102 average last season. Cruz still strikes out a lot, but he improved his defense over the winter (with help from four-time Gold Glover Kevin Kiermaier) and is close to a 40-40 pace for homers and steals.The 2025 season, when Cruz hit .200/.298/.378, was humbling and motivating.“He just seems more mature, physically and mentally,” Cherington said. “I think it started at the end of last year, just with his clarity that, ‘OK, this is not what I want to be, I want to be more than this,’ and he put in some really good work this offseason.“And, yeah, it’s still an evolution with him. There are more days this year where he is the best player on the field. And then there’s still things that he can be more consistent on.”Cruz bats leadoff because of his potential for damage, but behind him is a collection of patient hitters who have helped Pittsburgh to a .337 team on-base percentage, ranking third in the majors. The offseason additions to the lineup — second baseman Brandon Lowe, right fielder Ryan O’Hearn and designated hitter Marcell Ozuna — have made the kind of impact the players expected.“A little less pressure on an individual, not just myself, but Oneil and Bryan (Reynolds),” first baseman Spencer Horwitz, an on-base specialist, said on Opening Day. “They’ve been here a long time, and I’m sure they’ve felt that at times. And, hopefully, with the depth we have now — I mean, I was hitting 1, 2, 3 or 4 last year most of the time, now I’m hitting 7. And I don’t think that’s a knock on me. I think it’s a compliment to the guys that we have.”A few days after the opener, the Pirates added to that offense by promoting rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin and signing him to a club-record nine-year, $140 million contract. Griffin struggled as a teenager, hitting .182 with no homers — but since turning 20 on April 24, he’s batted .324 and gone deep three times. He also has 10 steals without being caught.“We thought that the defense and base running would be really strong and that would be enough to make the team better, and then the offense would kind of grow over time,” Cherington said. “And that’s basically what’s happened. He’s, in our view, played very consistent, good defense. He’s run the bases well. And the offense, for the first three weeks or something, was going through some challenges, as you’d expect, and it’s pretty consistently trending forward.”Pretty consistently trending forward could describe the franchise as a whole. After seven losing seasons in a row, the Pirates, at last, are more than just their ace.