Having to watch Kris Benson pitch is pure torture for anyone, but there's always a little extra pain in it for Lloyd McClendon. After the game, he has to relive Benson's outings with the media and try to provide spin control. They just don't pay the poor man enough on days like yesterday.

"I thought he found his changeup out there," McClendon said, somehow straight-faced, after the St. Louis Cardinals whacked Benson for eight runs and 11 hits in an 8-3 win.

Is that beautiful or what?

Not surprisingly, there was no mention of the Benson fastball that Scott Rolen crushed about 800 feet for a three-run home run in the third inning.

There was no mention that Benson is at 387 days and counting since his last win at PNC Park.

And there was no mention that Benson, 29, in his sixth season and making $6.15 million, has a 39-45 career record and is showing no signs of being a decent No. 4 starter let alone a staff ace.

"He's a tough kid. He'll bounce back," McClendon said, reaching really deep now.

There are a lot of adjectives that describe Benson. Overpaid and underachieving are two that come quickly to mind. But tough just doesn't work.

Craig Wilson gave Benson a 2-0 lead yesterday with a first-inning home run. A tough pitcher gets three quick outs in the next inning and gets his team back to the plate. Benson walked Rolen to lead off the second and watched him come around to score.

In the third, Benson gave up a leadoff double to pitcher Jason Marquis of all people. Rolen's home run came moments later on what Benson called "probably one of the worst pitches I've thrown in my whole career." There have been so many bad ones, it must be hard for him to keep track.

In the fifth, Benson gave up a leadoff home run to Tony Womack, who's not exactly Barry Bonds. It was Womack's 32nd home run in 4,162 career at-bats.

And in the sixth, Benson gave up a two-out single to Marquis, on an 0-2 pitch no less. The Cardinals scored twice more before McClendon, who was trying to save his tired bullpen, finally got Benson out of the game.

It's a good thing Benson is so tough or this performance would have been really ugly.

Benson is killing the Pirates -- on the field and in the books. They tried desperately to trade him last season before he shut down for the season in July with arm problems. With no plans to give him a new contract when he's a free agent at the end of the year -- why throw good money after bad? -- team officials had hoped he would put together a salary drive this season so they could trade him in July. But Benson is 4-4 with a 5.64 earned run average. Dave Littlefield probably shouldn't expect much in return.

It's reasonable to think Benson's lame pitching will cost him millions, but you know how dumb baseball owners and general managers are as a group. If the Anaheim Angels were willing to take on Raul Mondesi last week, there has to be at least one idiot out there who will give Benson a four-year, $30 million deal.

Benson has come to be the poster boy for a Pirates rotation that, with the exception of rookie Oliver Perez, has been anything but the team strength that so many of us predicted. Benson, Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, Ryan Vogelsong and Perez have combined to go 14-18 with a 5.33 ERA. Only the Colorado Rockies' starters have a worse ERA in the National League and, as everyone knows, they don't count for statistical purposes.

Don't blame Fogg. He is what he is, a No. 5 starter on a mediocre team. And don't be too hard on Vogelsong, who hasn't won since his first start of the season. He has only 16 big-league starts and still is learning. McClendon might tell fibs about Benson, but there's reason to believe him when he says Vogelsong has "as good of stuff as anyone we have."

If you want to finger someone, finger Wells. This was supposed to be the year he became a big winner. He has won just one of his past seven starts.

Certainly, blame Benson. It's almost impossible to believe that he hasn't won at PNC Park since May 10 of last season. Since then, he has made 11 home starts and has gone 0-6 with a 6.30 ERA. The one yesterday must have left the 12,582 fans thinking, "We gave up our holiday picnic for this?"

It soured a few so much that they heckled Littlefield as he sat in the press box in the seventh. With such a small crowd -- all of those empty seats must have looked hideous on ESPN's national telecast -- Littlefield could hear every word.

You don't want to imagine how mean those fans would have been if Benson hadn't had his good changeup working.