The Pittsburgh Pirates have completed 132 seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) since joining the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

(NL) in 1887. Through 2018, they have played 20,256 regular season games, winning 10,240 and losing 10,016, for a

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

of .506. The Pirates are also a combined total of 43—53 (.448) in

post-season The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

play. Prior to joining the National League in 1887 the franchise compiled a record of 236—296 (.444) in five seasons of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. This list documents the season-by-season records of the Pirates’ franchise including their years as the “Alleghenies” (alternately spelled Alleghenys). The Pirates moved from the American Association to the National League after owner William Nimick became upset over a contract dispute, thus establishing the extant franchise. The team currently plays home games at

PNC Park PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). It was opened during the 2001 MLB season, after the controlled implosion of the Pira ...

which they moved into in 2001. Prior to PNC Park, the Pirates played home games at

Three Rivers Stadium Three Rivers Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1970 to 2000. It was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). Buil ...

and

Forbes Field Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers ...

, among other stadiums. In 1903, the Pirates were defeated by the Boston Americans in the first

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. The Pirates returned to and won the World Series in 1909, over the Detroit Tigers. Since then the Pirates have won World Series in 1925, 1960, 1971, and 1979. In addition to these five World Series victories the Pirates have won nine National League pennants and qualified for the playoffs fifteen times, six of which were during a run of twelve winning seasons between 1969 and 1980. The franchise's original colors were red and blue, which were switched to black and gold—colors that all professional Pittsburgh sports franchises now share—for the 1948 season.

Table key

Season by season

These statistics are current as of October 3, 2021.

Record by decade

The following table describes the Pirates' MLB win–loss record by decade. These statistics are from

Baseball-Reference.com Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

's ''Pittsburgh Pirates History & Encyclopedia'', and are current as of January 16, 2018.

Postseason record by year

The Pirates have made the postseason seventeen times in their history, with their first being in 1903 and the most recent being in 2015.

Footnotes

* The

1972 Major League Baseball strike The 1972 Major League Baseball strike was the first players' strike in Major League Baseball history. The strike occurred from April 1 to 13, 1972. Baseball resumed when the owners and players agreed on a $500,000 increase in pension fund paym ...

forced the cancellation of the first seven games (thirteen game-days) of the season. * The

1981 Major League Baseball strike The 1981 Major League Baseball strike was the first work stoppage in Major League Baseball since the 1972 Major League Baseball strike that resulted in regular season games being cancelled. Overall, it was the fourth work stoppage since 1972, but ...

caused the season to split into two halves. This caused Major League Baseball to hold the Divisional Series so that the first- and second-half champions could play each other to determine playoff spots for the NLCS and World Series. * The

1994–95 Major League Baseball strike The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike was the eighth and longest work stoppage in baseball history, as well as the fourth in-season work stoppage in 22 years. The strike began on August 12, 1994, and resulted in the remainder of that season ...

ended the season on August 11, as well as cancelling the entire postseason. * The official Pirates website uses the spelling of "Alleghenies" rather than "Alleghenys". * The Pirates first season at

. * The 2020 Major League Baseball season was shortened to 60 games due to the COVID-19 global pandemic..

References

;General * * * * ;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh Pirates Seasons Major League Baseball teams seasons

Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...