Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit cannot hold on to the ball as the Braves' Andruw Jones scores in the seventh inning at PNC Park last night.

The Pittsburgh Baseball Club has been in business for 121 years now, and it has known boppers from Honus Wagner to Ralph Kiner to Willie Stargell, as well as some lengthy dry spells.

But it might never have seen an edition as offensively inept as the one that was nearly no-hit by someone named Chuck James in a 9-2 pummeling by the Atlanta Braves last night.

Go ahead, look it up.

The Pirates' team batting average dropped to .235 after mustering one hit in seven innings off James, a soft-tossing left-hander who had not pitched beyond the fifth all season but was perfect through five in this one and had a no-hitter through 6 1/3.

	Today Game: Pirates (RHP Ian Snell 2-2, 2.35) vs. Atlanta Braves (RHP Anthony Lerew 0-0, 3.00), 1:35 p.m., PNC Park. TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7). Key matchup: Andruw Jones loves the heat, but he is 0 for 5 with three strikeouts against Snell. Of note: Atlanta has scored 95 runs for Atlanta after two outs. Related articles Inside the Pirates: A course in Hitting 101 Pirates Notebook: GM backs hitting coach Manto Paul Meyer's Baseball Rankings Cook: LaRoche's friend keeps him chipper

That batting average ranks 28th of Major League Baseball's 30 teams, and the .293 on-base percentage ranks last by a wide margin.

Awful, right?

Wait.

If that .235 average were to hold up, it would mark only the eighth time in franchise history the Pirates finished below .240, the first time in six decades.

And, if that average were to fall just a few points lower, it could rival the low mark of .227, achieved by Doggie Miller, Jocko Fields, Abner Dalrymple and those 1888 Pittsburgh Alleghenies, many of whom had second jobs working in the mills.

Which might explain why, when Jason Bay was asked what he might add to the endless discussions about the offense, he answered without pulling a punch.

"Nothing. It's terrible," he said. "But I guess that's been said, too."

It has.

"You know, everyone wants to know what the magic potion is ... or they want to fire Jeff Manto, which is definitely not the problem," Bay said, referring to the Pirates' hitting coach. "It all falls on the hitters. Until we make a conscious effort to do it ourselves, it's not going to change. Everyone wants to shake up the lineup or whatever, but it's still the same guys in there."

To be fair, the Pirates had to deal with a huge deficit courtesy of another poor start by Tony Armas, tagged for five runs in 2 1/3 innings. Reliever Marty McLeary gave up another in the fourth, and Atlanta was ahead, 6-0.

"When you're trying to get your offense untracked and dig a six-run hole for yourself, it compounds the problem," manager Jim Tracy said. "We didn't pitch particularly well early on and, obviously, didn't get our first hit until the seventh inning. ... That's a very lopsided game, one which you just want to let go and come back tomorrow fresh."

If only it were so simple to solve the offense.

Two hours before the game, Tracy and Manto met with all of the position players behind closed doors for 50 minutes. Some specific instruction was issued about being more patient at the plate, largely to keep opposing pitchers from nibbling at the corners. But, mostly, a general message was conveyed to not try to add 100 points to the batting average with one swing.

As Tracy put it, "Relax."

Seems the message might have been taken too literally.

In being held to three or fewer runs for the 19th time in 35 games, the Pirates did not get a man on base until James' perfect game was broken up by Jose Bautista's leadoff walk in the sixth that drew a mock roar from the crowd of 34,775. The no-hit bid ended when Bay's one-out single to left brought more sarcasm from the citizens.

James was done after that inning and wound up with -- all together now -- his finest outing of the season.

The Pirates would tack on two meaningless runs off erratic reliever Chad Paronto in the eighth, but that did little to lessen the sting.

Total hits: five.

Answers, anyone?

"I don't know," center fielder Chris Duffy said. "It seems like we hit some balls hard, and they'll be right at somebody. And guys ... you can just sense that it takes the wind out of their sails. They get really frustrated, and it carries over. It's a lot easier to hit when guys around you are hitting."

"I don't know," shortstop Jack Wilson said. "We've had a couple different meetings about it, talked about it as a group, but we're just not getting it done."

Armas was slammed from the outset, giving up the first of Scott Thorman's two home runs on the evening, this a three-run shot in the second, and two more runs before getting the hook in the third.

His record fell to 0-3, and his ERA inflated to 8.76

His status in the rotation?

"I won't talk about that tonight," Tracy said tersely when the subject was raised.

There is no shortage of options to replace Armas, should it come to that: Shawn Chacon is the only one on the major-league roster, having been mostly effective in long relief. But serious consideration surely will be given to promoting Bryan Bullington or John Van Benschoten, each with an ERA below 2.00 at Class AAA Indianapolis and each a former first-round draft pick.

The Pirates fell to a season-low five games below .500 at 15-20 and will try to avoid a three-game sweep this afternoon.

The daily tall order for the offense: Find a way to score on Atlanta starter Anthony Lerew, owner of a 6.75 ERA in nine career starts.