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It was a manager's nightmare, on so many levels.
John Russell had described the Pirates as "energized" coming out of the All-Star break, but they made an excruciating fundamental mess of their 5-2 loss to the Houston Astros Friday night at PNC Park, with butchery on the basepaths, on the mound, in the field ... pretty much everywhere except where the 23,723 were booing.
It was Houston's first batter stealing second and third.
A wild pitch leading to the next run.
A balk that led to another.
A botched rundown.
One of their own runners getting picked off second by the catcher.
Not the kind of game Russell had envisioned out of the break?
Game: Pirates vs. Houston Astros, 7:05 p.m., PNC Park.
TV, radio: : FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: RHP Ross Ohlendorf (1-7, 4.22) vs. RHP Bud Norris (2-6, 5.97).
Key matchup: Ohlendorf never has beaten Houston, 0-6 with a 6.55 ERA and .338 opponents' batting average. But he did hold the Astros to two runs over seven innings last week at Minute Maid.
Of note: The Pirates' worst inning has been the third, in which they have been outscored, 75-25.
"It's not the kind of game you're looking for anytime," Russell replied. "Too many mistakes, mental lapses."
In the broader context of the manager's nightmare, it was the Pirates' seventh consecutive loss, their third streak that long in 2010, their fifth of five or more games. And they now are 30-59, just one game above the Baltimore Orioles, at 29-60, for the worst record in Major League Baseball.
Despite that, not one person has been fired from baseball operations or the coaching staff in 2010.
Could that change?
Multiple sources said Friday that neither general manager Neal Huntington nor Russell is in immediate trouble, but those same sources expressed a strong sentiment that the current 10-game homestand could be influential as it relates to Russell and his staff. No specific scenarios or timetables were offered, but the sentiment was that the teaching and execution of fundamentals must improve, not just for the present but also to illustrate that the Pirates' key young players are best prepared for the future.
Two sources suggested that some inside the clubhouse are turning against Russell, but others vehemently refuted that.
One veteran player pointed the finger squarely at the players.
"It's not easy," reliever Brendan Donnelly said after the game. "It's not easy to put in the work every day and to lose the game. In the second half, we wanted to push the envelope, relax, have a little fun. Obviously, that didn't happen tonight. But this is on us. It's on us as players. No one else can make that happen for us."
The Pirates' main problem, beyond any reasonable doubt, is a lack of talent. But this one was not about talent. It was about teachable facets of the game that have been bungled far too often this summer.
The mess began right away ...
Houston's Jason Bourgeois reached on an infield single, stole second while Michael Bourn struck out, stole third and sprinted home on Jeff Keppinger's groundout. Just like that, opponents improved to 68 for 78 in steal attempts, by far the worst such figure in the majors.
Catcher Ryan Doumit is the primary culprit, having caught only 8 percent of runners. But other factors are involved: Duke, a left-hander, was looking right at Bourgeois with his initial steal
"Those couple steals hurt me right off the bat," Duke said.
Duke has had trouble all year holding runners, and he is far from alone to blame: Neither the Pirates' management nor the coaching staff has made a visible priority of improving this area.
Another gift came in the second, when Houston's Hunter Pence singled and took an extra base on Duke's wild pitch before scoring on Humberto Quintero's double.
In the fourth, Duke caught Pence off first base and threw to Garrett Jones to begin a rundown for what would have gone into the books as a caught-stealing. But Jones threw too early to shortstop Ronny Cedeno, and Cedeno tried to pursue Pence back to first rather than flipping to Duke covering the bag. Pence was called safe after a head-first dive.
"I thought I had him," Cedeno said. "I just wanted to catch him from behind."
"It's my fault," Jones said. "I'm supposed to run that runner a lot closer to Ronny, then make the throw."
The Pirates pulled within 2-1 in the fourth when Andrew McCutchen doubled and eventually scored on Neil Walker's sacrifice fly. But Houston pounced on fresh reliever D.J. Carrasco in the sixth with Keppinger's leadoff home run, and the Astros added another manufactured run -- the type the Pirates seldom produce -- on Angel Sanchez's squeeze bunt to make it 4-1.
And the kicker: The Pirates threatened to rally in the bottom half, with two aboard for Walker, but Andy LaRoche was caught off second by a sharp throw from Quintero to end the inning.
Yes, caught off second, with the man at the plate representing the tying run.
"Got me leaning," LaRoche said.
New reliever Sean Gallagher's balk led to a Houston insurance run in the seventh.
Duke, pitching for the first time since June 16 because of a strained elbow, fared OK in allowing two runs and five hits over five innings. He was pulled because his pitch count had reached 78.
"It's something Zach can build off," Russell said. "He'd done what he needed to do, and we weren't going to push it."
"Felt good," Duke said. "Felt like I was commanding the ball pretty well, the stuff was crisp."
Offensively, the Pirates managed just six hits, including a poor fundamental at-bat by Cedeno in the eighth after Lastings Milledge's leadoff double, first-pitch hacking and grounding out to the left side.
The Pirates' streak of not hitting a home run with a man on base grew to 1,035 at-bats, dating to June 8. The Elias Sports Bureau said Friday that is the longest such streak in the majors since 1984, when Houston went 1,252 at-bats without one.
Colin Dunlap's blog on the Pirates is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
