PITTSBURGH _ For weeks _ months, perhaps _ the question was where the Pirates would wind up in the wild-card race. The Chicago Cubs ruled out the division pretty quickly, so the best the Pirates could hope for was the opportunity to host their fourth consecutive wild-card game and roll the dice against Madison Bumgarner, Noah Syndergaard or Carlos Martinez.
Now, after a disastrous two-week span, the question has changed: Can the Pirates finish better than .500?
Odd, for a team that won 98 games last season. But, after the Pirates lost their third in a row to the last-place Cincinnati Reds, 8-0, and dropped their 11th game in 13 tries, the question is also realistic.
Logic would say yes. They travel to Philadelphia for four games against the Phillies this week, then head to Cincinnati and Milwaukee for their next seven. That gives them some time to get some work done before finishing against Washington, the Cubs and at the St. Louis Cardinals. But they lost three against the Brewers and three against the Reds during their recent skid.
"If we can flip a switch and fix it, we certainly would," general manager Neal Huntington said. "But every time we seem like we're falling in the wrong direction, we seem to right ourselves. Every time we right ourselves, we seem to take a misstep. We've been the streakiest team in baseball this year, and our goal is to spend some time figuring out how we become more consistent."
He is correct about the vacillation. As recently as Aug. 28, the Pirates had won four in a row, were six games better than .500 and trailed in the wild card by only half a game. Since then they have won only two games.
"We've talked for weeks, the team that goes 8-2 is going to separate itself," Huntington said. "Unfortunately we've been the team that's gone 2-8."
There is no good way to lose 11 of 13, but the Pirates have done so in poor fashion. Twice, closer Tony Watson allowed the opponent to score in the ninth, including a four-run, three-homer mess against the Cardinals. The Pirates blew a four-run lead Saturday. Sunday, Ryan Vogelsong allowed five second-inning runs; Andrew McCutchen let a ball go through his legs and missed another on a dive, and Josh Bell could not reach a triple to the wall in right-center.
They loaded the bases twice against Reds starter Brandon Finnegan Sunday, once with nobody out, and couldn't score. In the third, they had men on first and second with one out, but stranded them there. Gregory Polanco's looking strikeout represented the final out of that inning. He argued with home plate umpire Pat Hoberg and got himself ejected.
In the late innings, manager Clint Hurdle sent in the second string, removing McCutchen, Jordy Mercer, Chris Stewart and Jung Ho Kang.
