There are fanbases who’ve dealt with ups and downs, stretches of competitiveness followed by futility, and then there’s Pittsburgh Pirates fans.

“It’s cumulative trauma over a long period of time,” said general manager Ben Cherington of an organization that hasn’t won a playoff series since the 1979 World Series. “The frustration builds from there.”

So in watching the Pirates, a team playing like they’re possessed, become the quickest National League club to hit 20 wins with a doubleheader sweep on Saturday, forgive a fanbase — who came out in droves in black-and-gold this past weekend in D.C. — for not tempering the enthusiasm of a season one-sixth of the way through. For chanting “Let’s go Bucs” on and off for hours Saturday as they pummeled the Nats, outscoring them 22-4 in two games. For crowding by the visiting dugout and screaming “Maggi! Maggi!” when 33-year-old rookie Drew Maggi recorded his first big-league hit after 13 seasons in the minors, driving in the game’s … wait for it … 13th run. Maggi got hit with a postgame Gatorade shower from his teammates, but had to share the spotlight with reliever Cody Bolton, who tossed two scoreless innings Saturday night in his big-league debut.

These days, there aren’t enough coolers to soak all the Pirates’ stars.

It’s early, it’s early, it’s early. Cherington, the coaches and the players all have great respect for the length of a 162-game season. Champions aren’t crowned in April. But these Pirates, winners in 11 of their past 13 games, can beat you in so many ways. They entered Sunday’s game first in the NL in runs scored (154) and second in the league in ERA (3.41) with a major-league leading 39 stolen bases. Through April 29, they’re tops in baseball in triples, third in walks.

They’re SAT, an acronym first base coach Tarrik Brock constantly references: Smart, Athletic and Tough.

“In spring training, we started realizing the real talent we had,” said Bryan Reynolds, who last week signed the largest extension in club history (eight years, $106.75 million) and with Saturday’s stolen base gave the Pirates the most for a team before May 1 in 20 years. “It’s been a month, but we are just getting more and more dynamic it seems like on the bases. We are just finding ways to win games.”