Big Lead Sports Bar

4/22/2010

WORST. LOSS. EVER!



Only the Pirates could momentarily steal the spotlight from the Steelers and Penguins on the day of the NFL Draft and an NHL playoff game. But if this team has perfected one thing, it's the art of losing. And as far as artful losing goes, Thursday's matinee against the Milwaukee Brewers was a masterpiece.

20-0. 36-1 for a three-game series. It was the worst loss in team history, which is saying a lot considering the Pirates have been around for 124 years and have lost 8,969 games, according to baseball-reference.com. Dejan Kovacevic added that it was the most lopsided three-game series in the majors since the Detroit Tigers swept the Minnesota Twins by a combined 45-10 on April 23-25, 1993. And after Daniel McCutchen's effort today, 2/5 of their rotation now sports ERAs above 14.

John Russell seemed to put the blame on the pitching, which, to be fair, was beyond hideous:
"It's embarrassing," Russell said of the result. "We've got to pitch better. That's the bottom line. We can't keep giving up that many runs that early and keep trying to fight back. We've got to get past the third or fourth inning. We just can't continue to cover that many innings out of our bullpen. We've just got to do a better job with our rotation."
But if it were up to me, I'd be equally as upset with that pathetic excuse for an offense: eight players who generated one run in three games against the Brewers. The Pirates have one regular (Ronny Cedeno) hitting .275, and Garrett Jones still leads the team with the three home runs he hit over the first two games. Andrew McCutchen has gotten off to a slow start; Lastings Milledge has shown no power (literally, he has no home runs) for a three-hitter. I could go on, but you get the point. I'll spare you any more graphic details.

The 7-8 Pirates, who've been outscored 85-13 in their eight losses, travel to 5-9 Houston this weekend, where they will start off against Roy Oswalt on Friday night. I'd say they've hit rock bottom, but unfortunately there are 147 more chances to top what we saw on Thursday. I know it's never to get too high or too low after one baseball game, but the last three days feel a little different. Optimistic Pirate Fan, what say you?

Email your feedback, questions, and tips Mondesishouse@gmail.com
 

18 comments:

MJ said...

Oh how I long for the days of Lloyd McClendon?

SantoGold said...

I'm speechless.

Anonymous said...

That 7-5 kool aid, people are sipping, gets a little bitter without the sweet taste of a win in 3 games and -35 run diff

Chip said...

I'm actually a Pirates supporter. I mean, I admit they suck but I'm not going to abandon them just like I wouldn't abandon the Pens when they were absolutely horrible.

But, just a question. This is the last year for Neal Huntington and John Russell, yes?

I mean, I realize they started with little to work with but there's no way they keep their jobs after this season, right?

jmarinara said...

Seriously, one of these days Don, you're going to write a "looking back on the streak of suck" type post on this blog and talk about the memorable and infamous moments of the losing streak.

I honestly think this game might be listed as the lowest moment of them all.

The Pirates have reached new depths of embarrassing.

Steve said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve said...

I'm surprised the android Russell actually criticised his team. Isn't that grounds for removal in the Nutting cult. I thought I'd hear something like: "I'm proud of they way we battled" and "We pitched well enough, just couldn't find our groove".

Seriously though, If the Pirates were going to set a record for the worse loss ever, this would be the year to do it. There is simply no limit to what this team "can't" do.

Why get rid of Huntington or Russell? Everyone's doing good things...real good things, they're this close, you'll see...ummm, excuse me, why does my Kool-Aid taste like bitter almonds?

BurressWithButterflywings said...

I saw someone on the PBC blog yesterday say "It still counts as just one loss .................

I don't think one can quantify the level of sucktitude this team exhibits from top to bottom. It's one thing to put a bunch of guys who are decent major league talent out there who work hard and play smart, because that can lead to wins.

There are simply not many guys who would even be on major league rosters, let along being everyday players anywhere else.

We have 3 SP's who would be middle to end of the rotation guys anywhere else. Andy Mac is the only position player you could make a case for as legitimate starter for other teams.

Milledge, Cedeno, Iwomura, Jones,Doumit, and LaRoche would be bench players and Clement wouldn't even be on an MLB roster.

These guys are abysmal.

Unknown said...

MLB should have a mercy rule. If you get beat by 20 you should be banished to AAA for the rest of the season.

The entire organization should be sent down to work on "finding their glitch"

I miss Lloyd McClendon too. At least he knew how to steal a base and provide some entertainment.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

@ Chip

I think NH needs a little more time than two years. His draft picks are still in A ball. Now Russel on the other hand can't possibly last, can he?

Chad said...

Chip, I wish you could fire the owner.

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

All i can say is: Nice Simpson's reference in the title!!!

Nothing further.

BURGH08 said...

Although they have virtually no hope as long as Nutting owns them, the contract situation with NH I do find interesting.

I also wonder how many of those posters on the 'PBC Blog' are actual employees of the Pirates.

Chip said...

Isn't this NH's third year as GM?

And I understand his common explanation for the team's incompetence is "all our best prospects are in A ball!"

But his talent evaluation skills seem to be really really bad. Have ANY of his trades produced ANY useful players so far? I guess Milledge and LaRoche aren't horrible but they aren't really particularly good either. Every other MLB level player he's acquired has sucked. Especially the pitchers.

If he can't acquire decent major league level guys in trades, why do people think he's some genius at recognizing future stars at the A ball level?

Broke But Still Drinking said...

There was a 12 year old girl in the news recently who has been throwing no-hitters. I don't know, I'm just throwing this out there, but maybe the Pirates should give her a call.

Unknown said...

This is his third year, but he has only had two drafts to date. I tend to agree and disagree with your thoughts. I agree that we haven't really aquired much in the trades that were made. But, that being said, outside of Bay who was gonna bring in impact players in a deal. Tabata and Karstens (I think) for Nady and Marte seems like a win to me in the sense that we got better talent than what we gave away. The Morgan for Milledge seems to be an upgrade considering they are essentially the same type of player but Lastings is much younger. But the Bay and Mclouth deals seem to be failures. Iwamura for Chavez was an instant upgrade for the team. So as far as trades go I'm still on the fence. Morris might still save the Bay deal and Grossman might still make the Mclouth deal look good. I guess in my mind I thought it would take about 5 years to right this ship so I still have hope for next year and the year after. But, after that he shouldn't be given any more rope.

Unknown said...

ha! good for the pirates...THEY DESERVE IT!