Is it too soon to mention the Pirates' tragic number in the National League Central Division race?

112.

At this rate, they should be officially eliminated long before the Steelers ease our suffering by reporting to Latrobe in late July.

Can it get any worse for the Pirates than an 8-2 home loss yesterday in the rubber game of a series against the Florida Marlins? A team with less than one-third the payroll? A team that has played 14 rookies? A team that ran out the worst starting pitcher in baseball?

There's just no way.

It's beginning to look as if the Pirates have the potential to have their worst team since 1985 -- the year of the baseball drug trials -- when they went through the motions all summer and lost 104 games. Certainly, they appear capable of playing just as horrendously as the 2001 club that broke in PNC Park by losing 100 games.

This particular Sunday was painfully reminiscent of a Sunday from that '01 season. June 3 was the date. A PNC Park crowd of 36,924 was so disgusted watching the Atlanta Braves bash 18 hits against the Pirates in an 11-7 win in the first game of a doubleheader that just about everybody bailed out between games. I still can see the people pouring across the Clemente Bridge. They certainly didn't miss anything. The Braves won the second game, 8-3, to drop the Pirates' record to 17-37, adding injury to insult by breaking the leg of Pirates pitcher Jose Silva with a line drive.

New manager Lloyd McClendon was so embarrassed he ordered a rare off-day workout the next afternoon.

Owner Kevin McClatchy fired general manager Cam Bonifay not long after.

New manager Jim Tracy should be every bit as embarrassed today.

Maybe McClatchy should fire general manager Dave Littlefield for putting together this mess even though he just gave him a one-year extension through the 2008 season.

This latest surrender -- which left the Pirates at 11-27, the most losses in baseball -- was just too much to stomach.

It took the crowd of 15,921 just 3 minutes to boo Pirates starter Ian Snell after he gave up an infield single, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch to open the game. The Marlins would go on to bat around in the first inning, then do it again in the second to take an 8-0 lead.

At that point, it was hard not to wish for the 10-run mercy rule.

"I just didn't have it," Snell would say later. "Everything was flat. No movement. Nothing."

That's a perfect description of the Pirates' season.

A whole lot of nothing.

That's exactly what your favorite big boppers did against Marlins starter Brian Moehler. He came into the game with an 0-4 record and 9.76 earned run average. Opponents were hitting .369 against him. He hadn't won a game since July.

Wouldn't you know Moehler took a shutout into the eighth inning?

Jeromy Burnitz went 0 for 3 against Moehler, although an eight-inning single off reliever Randy Messenger did push his batting average up to .185. Craig Wilson couldn't get a ball out of the infield against Moehler in three at-bats. Chris Duffy couldn't do it in four tries and was sent to the minors after the game.

Stop the presses!

Mike Edwards is on the way from Class AAA Indianapolis.

That should get the Pirates going.

Tracy must have had an idea his lame hitters were going to have a hard time against Moehler. I know, how could he not after watching them hack so hopelessly in so many games? In the first inning, with the Pirates already down, 1-0, and Snell pitching to cleanup hitter Josh Willingham with a runner on third base and one out, he ordered his infield to play in. You would have thought he wouldn't risk a big inning, wouldn't fear a 2-0 deficit against a pitcher as lousy as Moehler.

That's not exactly showing a lot of faith in your sticks, is it?

What's sad is that Tracy couldn't order an off-day workout today even if he wanted to do it.

What's sadder is that the Pirates are playing an exhibition game against the Cincinnati Reds this afternoon at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

It just doesn't seem right that such a disgraceful baseball team is allowed to desecrate such hallowed baseball grounds.