Andrew McCutchen and Clint Hurdle do a forearm-bash during pregame intros Wednesday at PNC Park. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

There was precious little moping to be seen in the moments after the Pirates’ 2014 season finally ran out of comebacks late Wednesday night. Certainly not in PNC Park’s home clubhouse.

That’s because this team’s true leader, as is the case with all winning baseball teams, is its manager. And this is what Clint Hurdle, per his recollection, told his players before they’d pulled off the first uniform: “Feel what you need to feel. We all feel disappointment. There should not be any shame. You walk out of this clubhouse head held high. You look people in the eye. We created something here that’s becoming special.”

Tough as these past 24 hours have been for the franchise’s faithful, that’s a tough point to dispute. And the back-to-back playoff appearances, while rightly grabbing all the headlines and now the angst, are only part of that.

Here are five very real reasons to look ahead to Bradenton next spring and all that could follow:

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Brandon Crawford crosses home after his fourth-inning grand slam Wednesday at PNC Park. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The most sickening sound in PNC Park history, by my highly unofficial reckoning, came on the afternoon of April 22, 2010. Jim Edmonds, in the twilight of his career with the Brewers at the time, launched what felt like the eleventy-billionth home run of the day for the visitors, just over the Clemente Wall. And because the place had emptied out an hour or two earlier, because pretty much everything in those years rang so hollow, anyway, that ball clanked off one of those blue seats out there so loudly, so obnoxiously that it just felt so … I don’t know … easy, I guess.

The Pirates had been a joke long before that, of course, but that accounted for the runs 14, 15 and 16 of a final tally that, as some of you will ruefully recall, was 20-0.

Milwaukee 20, Pittsburgh 0.

I wrote that day that it was the lowest point in the franchise’s century-and-a-quarter history. And trust me, I was referring as much to that sound as the score.

Flash forward to Wednesday night and the fourth inning of the Pirates’ National League wild card game with the Giants.

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Thousands of Pirates fans fill the heart of Market Square on Wednesday afternoon. — PITTSBURGH PIRATES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Hey, baseball, welcome back!

Been a while, but not too long, right?

We’ll trust you’re having an easier time navigating our tunnels and bridges and roads. We’ll also trust you’re familiar by now with the whole fries-in-the-sandwich concept, the absence of any steel mills remaining in city limits, the world-class waterfronts with our Fountain back at full steam, the breathtaking skyline with a new neighbor poking her head high, all that stuff.

We’re pretty good like that.

The baseball team’s pretty good, too, we’ll assume you’ve noticed before October this time around.

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Andrew McCutchen trots home on Starling Marte’s two-run double in the seventh inning Thursday. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

ATLANTA — “It’s a more talented team. Honestly, I think it’s just a better team all around.”

That was Clint Hurdle, offering a rare comparison of his 2014 Pirates and the 2013 model Thursday in his office at Turner Field, and he just might be right. I’m thinking, actually, that he is.

At the same time, I’m wondering why there’s any hesitation at all to share the sentiment.

Is it for the simple reason that the 2013 team finished with 94 wins while this one, after the 10-1 thrashing of the Braves by nightfall, is 87-72?

Is it because that team flew into the playoffs while this one has had to fight for every inch?

Is it because that team had A.J. Burnett and was brashly inviting opponents to take a seat?

Is it because Pedro Alvarez was the National League’s home run champion and brought the first real feeling of thunder to the lineup in a long, long time?

Is it because the rush that accompanies trade-deadline acquisitions such as Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau never came close to being matched this summer?

Well, whatever combination of all that it might be, know this: Hurdle’s right. This team is better.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

ATLANTA — By midday Wednesday, the champagne had yet to dissipate from the visiting clubhouse’s carpet at Turner Field, the result of the Pirates’ pouring out 20 cases of the stuff in that outpouring of emotion for clinching a National League playoff spot.

“Dude,” one of the stadium’s young clubhouse attendants began his somewhat indignant explanation when I asked why the floor still felt sticky. “We had to bring in, like a Zamboni, to clean all that up.”

Right. Takes time. Dude.

Well, turned out that might not have been the only effect of the celebration, anyway, judging by the flat, unfocused, letdown-like performance — their first all month, in fairness — in falling to the Braves, 6-2. Jeff Locke pitched without command in conceding six runs, eight hits and five walks over four innings, and this wasn’t about to become comeback victory No. 42 once all that piled up.

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Clint Hurdle raises a fist toward the Pirates’ 1,000 chanting, cheering fans at Turner Field. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

ATLANTA — “Atlanta …” Jeff Banister breathes out, as if by way of a wistful sigh.

It’s 6:32 p.m., about a half-hour to first pitch Tuesday at Turner Field, and the Pirates’ bench coach is down at the far end of the visitors’ dugout. He enjoys doing this before games, usually with the bill of the cap pulled down, immersed in the many intricacies the sport of his life might throw his way by sunset.

Only this time the bill’s up.

“Atlanta,” he repeats with a small smile. “Here, of all places.”

Yeah, here, of all places.

6:33 p.m.: Other end of the dugout. Clint Hurdle’s curious smile suggests he wants to know what Banister was musing. So he hears it. And as he expects, it was about Oct. 14, 1992. You know, as Hurdle is reminded, the day the franchise died.

“Right,” Hurdle came back softly. “The franchise died. So I’ve heard.”

9:58 p.m.: Tony Watson induces a smooth 3-6-3 double play for the final outs of a 3-2 victory over the Braves, one that propels this remarkable, resilient-beyond-words 128th edition of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club into the National League playoffs for a second consecutive summer.

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