Despite losing a series to the Washington Nationals this past weekend at PNC Park, there’s a lot to like about the Pittsburgh Pirates’ performance after five weeks of play.

Starling Marte seems on the cusp of becoming a legitimate major league star, leading the team in batting average (.325) and stolen bases (10) while adding five home runs.

After going 0-for-17 to start the season, free agent catcher Russell Martin has hit six home runs and has been reliable behind the plate. He’s already thrown out more baserunners trying to steal this year (eight) than Rod Barajas did all of last year (six).

Starting pitcher Jeff Locke is 3-1 with a 3.21 ERA. It would be nice to see him work deeper into games. Locke has pitched more than five innings in just three of his six starts. But for a guy who began the season as Pittsburgh’s fifth starter, I’m sure manager Clint Hurdle is not complaining.

All three players have helped the Pirates go 17-14 and the team is in the middle of the NL Central race.

But Bucco fans should not overlook the work turned in by closer Jason Grilli. The 36-year old has successfully converted all 12 of his save opportunities and is bringing the curtain down on games in dominating fashion. Grilli has a minuscule 0.69 ERA, 21 strikeouts and has not given up a home run — and just one extra base hit — in 13 innings.

Meanwhile, the man who Grilli took over for, Boston’s Joel Hanrahan, has struggled, blowing a save and shouldering a current ERA of 9.45.

Grilli’s debut in the majors came in 2000 with the Marlins. Though he had pitched for six different teams before joining the Pirates in 2010, he was never given the chance to be a team’s main closer until now.

Before this season, he had earned just five saves, but has displayed his ability to overwhelm hitters for some time.

With Colorado in 2008, Grilli fanned 59 batters in 61.1 innings pitched. Since then, his ratio has been no worse than a strikeout per inning. He reached another level last year with 90 Ks in just 58.2 innings while spending most of the season as Hanrahan’s setup man.

Grilli has allowed just 10 baserunners and has given up just one run in his 12 save chances thus far.

As well as he has pitched in 2013, a bad outing is bound to find Grilli at some point. It will be interesting to see how he responds to that first blown save. He had three of them last year, but is now looked on as the Pirates’ bullpen ace and that carries with it a different type of pressure.

Can Grilli handle that for an entire season? Pittsburgh hopes to end 20 years of losing and the last thing the Pirates need is a closer with shaky confidence and erratic outings.

Though it is a small sample size, he has looked great so far this season. I’m hoping this is one case when we can correctly judge a book by its cover.

Derek Pyda is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.