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Riding home on the bike after the game, it occurred to me:

Call Wally Joyner.

The day the trade was announced back in January, Jim Tracy mentioned to me that the one guy who had a swing similar to LaRoche's was Joyner. That long, smooth movement through the zone, aimed at delivering maximum force while retaining patience in the approach. From there, more than one other baseball person mentioned it.

So, call him.

Call anyone.

Try something.

The kid is positively dying at the plate and, now, away from it, too. And the Pirates need to do something wholly uncharacteristic and think outside the box. Outside the organization, even. Without piling on to the growing negativity associated with hitting coach Jeff Manto, it is by now exceedingly clear that whatever he is telling LaRoche is not working. And I can assure you this is not because LaRoche is not receptive. As he mentioned to me again yesterday, he still is taking advice "wherever I can get it."

Another voice is needed.

When companies struggle and do not have internal solutions, they bring in outside consultants. And no, not these guys. They bring in experienced, independent-minded fresh views with a hope of transforming a situation that becomes stale and stagnant otherwise.

More on the guy with the .132 average ...

Q: If Laroche needs ABs, why don't we send him down for two weeks and let him find his stroke at Indy, then bring him up. How long can we keep sending up a .132 hitter? It's like having a pitcher bat.

Then, we could play Brad Eldred or Ryan Doumit at first.

Lee Young of Mechanicsburg

KOVACEVIC: LaRoche has options, so he could be demoted. And I write that in the technical sense only.

Could that be an answer? I suppose you could look at Jim Tracy's comments from yesterday and interpret them any way you wish. But I get the idea that the Pirates' plan is to keep him plugging away for a while, perhaps lower in the order, perhaps picking spots with opposing pitchers. He did have a couple of decent games in that old No. 7 spot of the order and really did not look bad until he was back at No. 5 yesterday.

I would say this coming road trip is pretty important for him. For the team, too, but that is another matter.

Q: Dejan, could LaRoche have been a guy who benefited so much from pitchers having to face Andruw and Chipper Jones before him that they relaxed and he then saw a lot of mistakes and fat fastballs?

I'm starting to worry that Dave Littlefield blew another player evaluation.

Luke Reigel of Kenosha, Wis.

KOVACEVIC: LaRoche is getting good pitches, fat pitches, you name it. He is not hitting them. In many cases, he is not even swinging The video bears it out.

If Littlefield blew this player evaluation, he would have to stand in a long line of people who were wrong about LaRoche.

Q: After reading your article on the 20 percent drop in season-ticket sales, I was wondering how much of that drop off had to do with the smoking ban. Have you heard of any grumblings on the matter?

Luke Wassam of Center Township

KOVACEVIC: Barely a word, Luke. You could always see the smoking areas beneath the press box, and I never saw more than a handful of people there, so I wonder how many this affected.

Yours was the only note I received backing this notion in response to that notebook item.

Until tomorrow, by which point you will be reading Paul Meyer's coverage of the series in Milwaukee ...