Folks, I’m not going to lie to you. I feel like I owe a little something to Ben Heller.

Fifth Avenue Sports got a major spike in views back when Ben Heller earned his first promotion from Triple-A to the major leagues. My article on Heller back when he was still appearing in Indianapolis on a minor league contract made its way through Pirates Twitter/X when he had his contract selected.

It was one of the best days in site history; unfortunately, the crash back down to earth for the Fifth Ave vibe check was only slightly less bad than Heller’s spectacular collapse in Pittsburgh.

I say all that to say this: I’ve documented Heller a lot for a guy who has only pitched 4.0 innings in a Pirates uniform.

It’s been a lot of talking about the bad; all of which is Heller’s own doing. But tonight, I’d like to commend what was a gutsy performance from him.

These are the kinds of niche things we’re going to start having to talk about more if the Pirates, who fell to 56-60 with tonight’s loss, continue this absolute free fall away from relevancy and a wild card battle.

Perhaps a new number was all Heller needed to start turning things around. Heller wore 60 during his first stint in Pittsburgh, but after he was designated for assignment, 60 was soon taken by Dennis Santana, who was claimed off waivers.

A return for Heller saw him now take 61, which was last worn by Jose Hernandez before he himself was DFA’d earlier in the year. Ironically, Hernandez was cut to make room for Santana. Baseball really is a numbers game!