Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Left fielder Jason Bay can only watch as the Cubs' Aramis Ramirez hits a two-run home run in the sixth inning at PNC Park yesterday. Click photo for larger image. Scouting Report Opponent: St. Louis Cardinals (7-5). Site: PNC Park. Times: 7:05 p.m. today and tomorrow, 12:35 p.m. Wednesday. TV, radio: No TV; all games on KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. Starting matchups: LHP Paul Maholm (0-1, 7.71) vs. RHP Jason Marquis (2-0, 3.97), LHP Oliver Perez (0-2, 8.10) vs. RHP Jeff Suppan (0-1, 4.09), RHP Victor Santos (1-2, 7.07) vs. RHP Chris Carpenter (1-1, 2.37). Season series: First meeting. Cardinals won series last year, 12-4. Three things to know about the Cardinals: 1. Do not be fooled by C Yadier Molina's .225 average. He undoubtedly has been waiting for the Pirates. He batted .379 against them last season -- .229 against everyone else -- with half his eight home runs and 15 of his 49 RBIs. 2. The team is 4-5 in its past nine games, but that is no fault of 1B Albert Pujols, who already has eight home runs and 17 RBIs, including his three long balls yesterday to sink Cincinnati. 3. Pujols has 16 home runs at PNC Park, most of any opponent. Second most? CF Jim Edmonds with 10. But Edmonds has an inflamed right shoulder and is questionable for the series. The Pirates' key to success: Pitch. The intangible: Small wonder the Cardinals modeled some of their new Busch Stadium after Pittsburgh's ballpark. They feel almost at home at PNC Park, posting a 30-10 record there since its opening in 2001. On deck: A six-game road trip to Houston and St. Louis. -- By Dejan Kovacevic Related articles Pirates Notebook: No leftover lunacy involving Luna Cook: Cursed Pirates can't get much right these days Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Cubs box score Game play-by-play

Indications were mounting yesterday that Ian Snell could be the first of the Pirates' rancid rotation to lose his job.

And that was before he played the dominant role in his team getting clubbed by the Chicago Cubs, 7-3, at PNC Park by giving up six runs in five-plus innings to raise his ERA to 9.60.

Shortly before the first pitch, general manager Dave Littlefield was blunt when asked to assess Snell's performance to date.

"So far, it's not been good," Littlefield replied. "He's part of that young group we have, and you've got to continue to watch how they perform. If it goes well, you give more opportunities. If it doesn't, over time, you've got to look at how many performances at a below-average rate he gets."

Afterward, manager Jim Tracy took that evaluation to another level, displaying as much public anger as he has since taking the job, all of it aimed at Snell.

His focus was on three pitches:

In the first inning, with Aramis Ramirez on first after an RBI single, Todd Walker powered Snell's two-strike fastball over the heart of the plate above the Clemente Wall in right to stake Chicago to a 3-0 lead.

In the sixth, Snell got ahead of Juan Pierre by the same count, and Pierre lashed another fastball down the middle into center field for a single that sparked a four-run inning.

Freddie Bynum followed Pierre with a single, bringing up Derrek Lee, the National League batting champion last year, with runners at first and second. Snell fell behind, 3-1, and grooved a fastball. Lee drove it to the North Side Notch for a two-run triple.

Of falling behind Lee, Tracy said, "You cannot make mistakes like that at this level."

The 0-2 pitches seemed to irritate him more.

"When you begin a professional career and come up through a minor-league system, you know -- you know -- early on that, when you get a hitter to no balls and two strikes, a ball sitting right over the middle of the plate is probably not a good location. It doesn't take very long to figure that out. What happened today is what happens to you at the professional level, whether it's at Hickory, Lynchburg, Altoona, Indianapolis or Pittsburgh."

Snell took some solace in having held the Cubs without a run or hit from the second to the fifth innings, but not much.

"Those 0-2 pitches, those are my fault," he said. "It's frustrating."

Snell, 24, has been dominant in the minors, evident by his 58-20 record and a no-hitter last season for Class AAA Indianapolis. But he has not come close to putting it together in Pittsburgh, where he is 1-4 in nine starts with an 8.18 ERA.

That leaves the Pirates in a quandary.

Do they option Snell back to Indianapolis, even though he would seem to have little to gain at that level?

Do they relegate him to long relief?

Or do they stick with him?

The most likely scenario, based on all circumstances, seems to be one of those first two, combined with the recall of left-hander Tom Gorzelanny from Indianapolis.

In two starts, Gorzelanny has yet to allow an earned run in nine innings and has struck out 13 while walking four.

Asked yesterday if the Pirates have a viable option in Indianapolis, Littlefield quickly answered: "Gorzelanny certainly is the leading candidate in regards to how he's throwing. He's been very effective."

Gorzelanny is scheduled to pitch this afternoon against Syracuse.

His addition would mean four left-handers in the Pirates' rotation, but Littlefield reiterated he would have no issue with that.

The Pirates were down, 7-0, after reliever Matt Capps gave up a two-run home run to Ramirez in that big Chicago sixth.

Craig Wilson's three-run home run in the bottom of that inning -- his sixth of the season and fifth in his past 20 at-bats -- pulled the Pirates within four. But, as has become the refrain, they were unable to overcome the damage wrought by their starter.

"There's not much we can do about that," left fielder Jason Bay said. "As hitters, you just do your jobs and hope we can get all cylinders going at some point."

Perhaps most telling about the way these 4-10 Pirates have fared in the early going was that nary a boo was heard from the 15,020 in attendance all afternoon. After seeing the rotation deliver only two quality starts all season, each by Zach Duke, it might already be the accepted norm.

But it sounded as if status quo will not be tolerated by management for long.

Asked how much more rope he will extend to his ineffective starters, Tracy answered pointedly: "I came here to make this club better. Markedly better. That's a realization they should have."