The Pirates have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball statistically, but general manager Neal Huntington anticipates that they'll came back down to earth. Pittsburgh has a team ERA of 3.42, are allowing just 3.70 runs per game, and the team has the best defensive efficiency rating (.731) in the majors. "There's one big indicator that shows we've benefitted from good fortune, which is batting average (on) balls in play," Huntington said. "We're markedly variant from the average, which means we're going to have a lot more hits fall in there pretty soon." The Pirates have a .267 BABIP ? tops in the majors and about 30 points better than average. "We feel like our pitchers are better," Huntington said. "Our defense is better from a personnel standpoint and a positioning standpoint. (Coaches) Perry Hill and Gary Varsho have been very aggressive in positioning our fielders. We feel like we're in the right spot more often than we were a year ago. "Are we going to have (rough) stretches? We probably will. But we do think our guys are better, and as a result we're better than we were a year ago. I don't know if we're going to hold in the top five all year, but it certainly won't be a reason to panic if we have an outing or two when we give up some runs."