Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 21 times, shame on me.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been like the Boy Who Cried Wolf the last few seasons. The Buccos yell, “Hey, look at us! We’re going to have a winning season, the first since 1992!”

And we all come running. Only, there is no winning season and now we’re at 20 straight wolf-less years and counting.

Could this be “The Year of the Wolf” for the Pirates? In that classic parable, the wolf does show up, after all.

Pittsburgh is 13 games over .500. On this date last season, the Pirates were 25-25. The Bucs have won 18 games in May for the first time since 1972.

Things are looking up. Even at .500 through 50 games last season, the Pirates were almost a lock to end the drought.

Until August and September happened.

August and September haven’t happened yet this season.

That begs the question: why will this year be any different?

Here are some reasons why things are different this year:

Another year older, another year wiser. After two years of precipitous collapses in the late summer, the Bucs have figured out how to play consistently. Their longest losing streak since the first six games of the season has been two.

Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli. Lots of people wondered, myself included, what in the name of David Littlefield was going on when the Bucs jettisoned closer Joel Hanrahan for a couple of marginal minor leaguers and Melancon.

It turned out to be a brilliant move. Hanrahan’s arm almost literally fell off and Melancon and Grilli have become the best 1-2 bullpen punch in baseball.

Grilli leads the majors with 22 saves.

Deep starting pitching. The rotation of A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, Jeff Locke, Francisco Liriano and Jeanmar Gomez has been lights out in May.

Locke, Liriano and Gomez have exceeded expectations. If anyone falters, the Pirates still have James McDonald, Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole to turn to.

Teams kill for that kind of starting pitching depth.

Of course, I have to be a Debbie Downer. Here are some reasons why it will be the same old, same old this season:

Pitching will wear out down the stretch. It’s happened the last two seasons and Clint Hurdle continues to abuse his bullpen.

Melancon already has 28 appearances; Grilli 27. Melancon is on pace to pitch 86 innings. Grilli will have logged 77 games — and at this rate 77 saves — by the end of the season.

That’s a heavy workload for the back of the bullpen.

The lineup still has holes. Lots of holes. While the Pirates have done a good job putting runs on the board, the club is still in the bottom half of the league in batting average.

It’s still way too early to know for sure if the losing-season streak will end. The Pirates are playing well now. Enjoy that.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.