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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Russell Martin is welcomed back to the Pirates’ dugout after his three-run home run Friday night. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Everybody knew it. And don’t lie: You did, too.

So did Justin Wilson, even though he was seated way out in the Pirates’ bullpen, more than 420 feet away from Russell Martin in the batter’s box facing the Brewers’ Jonathan Broxton.

But don’t take Wilson’s word for it, because you wouldn’t believe him.

“J-Willie nailed it, I’m telling you,” fellow reliever Tony Watson would recall later. “He said, ‘Russ is taking this one out. Next pitch. Oppo.’ He even called where.”

How about in the dugout?

“It’s what you’re thinking,” bench coach Jeff Banister said. “It’s Russ. How can it not be what you’re thinking?”

How about in the crowd of 37,974, squeezed into every standing-room inch at PNC Park and, in that moment, standing even if they had seats?

They knew.

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Russell Martin connects on a two-run blast to right-center in the second inning Tuesday at PNC Park. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Tony Watson held the game in his left hand, essentially, and only he and Russell Martin knew what was coming next.

Except that they really didn’t.

“I called for a changeup. I know that much,” the catcher was telling me after the Pirates’ 4-0 blanking of the Red Sox on Tuesday night at PNC Park. “What happened to it after that …”

What happened to it after that was that Yoenis Cespedes, Boston’s light-tower-power with the 21 bombs, swung over it for strike three to end the eighth inning and, in all reality, bury any chance for a Red Sox rally. Two were aboard, two were out, and it was all or nothing.

Nothing won in a landslide.

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