Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Sports - Pirates/Baseball

Bucs blame umps as they near 100

The Pirates dare to think for a few fleeting minutes, that maybe, just maybe, they finally have found a way to win, and it disintegrates into a seventh consecutive defeat, 4-3, to the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday at Busch Stadium.

That is so poetic

The bitterness was easy to detect throughout the clubhouse, almost all of it aimed at home-plate umpire Jerry Meals.

So that must be why the Pirates are the worst team in the majors, because of the umps, thats exactly it. Jim Tracy is already deflecting blame. Goodnite.

How bad?

This bad ...

The trip was the Pirates' longest without a win since going 0-7 Aug. 13-19, 2001, in Phoenix and Houston.

They were outscored, 30-12, on the trip and had one lead. For half an inning.

The season record is tied for the worst 23-game start in the franchise's 120 years. Only one team, the 1952 edition, started 5-19, which these Pirates can match tomorrow.

Not even the horrific 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenies, who wound up a franchise-worst 23-113, started this badly. They were 8-14-1 through 23 games.

The Pirates have lost 12 of their first 13 road games, including five by a run.

Open up the record books, no record is safe.

"We played a good ballgame today," Tracy said. "We did everything we could do."

So basically everything they could do was lost their seventh straight game. That inspires hope.

Chris Duffy .176
Joe Randa .222
Jose Hernandez .182 (but one homerun)

Right fielder Jeromy Burnitz was given the day off, Tracy explained, mostly to give him consecutive days in the wake of a 2-for-22 showing in the previous six games. "We know his hangovers are bad and we don't want him playing in day games," Tracy said. "It's important that you allow the guy a chance to sober up."

The Pirates allowed a first-inning run in all six games of the trip and have done so in 15 of their 23 games overall. They have been outscored, 29-7, in first innings.

-n