A college-aged kid cornered Pirates outfielder Jason Bay at Ross Park Mall yesterday.

"You guys gotta win tonight," the young man said. "It'll be nice to see you get to .500."

So far so good ...

"You know," the kid said to Bay, "the last time the Pirates finished above .500, I was 8 years old."

Ouch.

"Is that a shame or what?" Bay would ask later.

It's almost enough to make a player avoid public appearances but maybe -- just maybe -- those days are about to end for the Pirates. They did win last night, demolishing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 18-2, at steamy, soggy PNC Park for their ninth win in the past 12 games. They also evened their record at 30-30, the first time this season they've been at .500 and the latest they've done it in six years.

"It's not like we're going to say, 'Woo hoo! Let's party!'" Bay said. "But it is a nice accomplishment, especially considering our start."

It was almost unfathomable when the Pirates were 8-16, including 3-9 at home. Things were so bad that pitcher Rick White and since-departed catcher Benito Santiago called a players-only meeting in Milwaukee and manager Lloyd McClendon threw a tirade in Houston, nearly tearing his rotator cuff by heaving a bat bag and almost breaking his toe by kicking a table. At that point, you could have made a lot of money by betting on the Pirates getting back to .500, even more if you had bet they would go into today's games with a better record than the $200 million New York Yankees.

But the Pirates are on a 22-14 roll, including 13-6 at home. They turned it around with starting pitching. Oliver Perez threw the latest gem, holding the Devil Rays to one run and five hits in seven innings. At one point, he retired 13 consecutive batters -- eight by strikeout -- on his way to his 15th career 10-strikeout game. He's 4-0 with a 3.26 earned run average in five starts since the team shut him down for two weeks to work on his mechanics.

How good have the Pirates' starters been? In the past 32 games, they have gone 16-6 with a 3.09 ERA. During that stretch, they've pitched at least six innings 23 times and allowed two or fewer earned runs 22 times.

"No question," first baseman Daryle Ward said, "our pitching has been our strength."

The hitting hasn't been bad, either.

The Pirates gave Perez all the support he needed by scoring three runs in the first. Rob Mackowiak, the hottest hitter in baseball with a .432 average since the team started its turnaround May 3, was in the middle of it with a single. Ward, who has 11 RBIs in the past four games, drove in a run with a groundout. Even slumping Jose Castillo ended an 0-for-18 slide with a run-scoring single and added a three-run home run in a six-run fifth inning.

The Pirates finished with a season-high 20 hits and scored their most runs in nearly 13 years, much to the delight of 31,113 fans.

"This is not an aberration," McClendon said. "This is the result of playing good baseball."

It's what McClendon had hoped for when, the day after his tantrum in Houston, he told the players to keep grinding and they would end up forgetting about the rotten start. "I'm not quite sure I believed it," he said last night, laughing. Certainly, he didn't know if he would still have his job at the All-Star break. "A whole lot of people had me on the Turnpike heading out of town."

It's funny, you don't hear much of that these days.

Now, it's up to McClendon and the Pirates to keep it going. They teased us last season by starting 23-22, but then lost five games in a row and 14 of the next 15. You have to go back to 1999 to find when they were at .500 later in a season. They were 67-67 on Sept. 2 before limping to the finish line with an 11-16 record.

Maybe Bay's new pal from the mall is lucky in one sad sense. At least he can remember when the Pirates last had a winning record -- 1992. A lot of kids who are celebrating their high school graduation this month can't make the same claim.

Bay would love to be a part of the team that ends the 12 years of misery.

"We're a bunch of young guys working to get better," he said. "We don't want to be known as the same old losers."

Added McClendon, "I truly believe this is just the start for us. When I signed on for the job, it was to win a championship. We've got a long way to go and we still have holes to fill. But we're clearly headed in the right direction."