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SAN DIEGO -- You can dress them up in Lumber Company duds, but against the major leagues' best pitching staff, they were once again a dud.
Slumber Company?
Pick your pun.
Collecting just four hits, getting shut out for the third time in their past 13 games, getting held to one run or fewer for the sixth time in that baker's-dozen span, the Pirates were thrown down on Throwback Thursday, 3-0, and swept by the defense-and-pitching Padres. No wonder one team, the group in the same mustard and brown they wore in 1970s, leads the National League West. No wonder the other, donning the gold-and-black stripes on white jerseys of homer-hitting days of yore, sits in the major league cellar.
The last Pirates homer was four games and 131 at-bats ago, on Pedro Alvarez's electrifying, walk-off, 10th-inning blast Saturday night.
Game: Pirates vs. Houston Astros, 8:05 p.m., Minute Maid Park.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: RHP Ross Ohlendorf (1-9, 4.23) vs. RHP Brett Myers (8-7, 3.21).
Key matchup: Ohlendorf vs. bad luck. He has a 3.80 ERA in his past six starts, dating to Juy 2, yet has failed to win a game.
Of note: With a loss, Ohlendorf ties the major league worst mark by a starter at 1-10 and an .091 winning percentage, alongside an injured Ryan Rowland-Smith of Seattle.
This defeat -- the Pirates' fourth in succession anywhere and seventh consecutive on the road -- also marked the seventh loss in the past 10 starts by Zach Duke, whose record fell to 5-11. Only Baltimore's Kevin Millwood (12) and Philadelphia's Roy Oswalt (13), formerly of Houston, own more losses in the majors this season.
And Duke pitched admirably again, his fourth quality start in his past five games: six innings and three runs, though only two were earned.
"He pitched real well today. He has been pitching real well," Alvarez said of Duke. "We just haven't been fortunate enough to get him some runs."
It was the fifth time in his past six starts that he limited the opposition to three earned runs or fewer, and the fourth time to just two. Not that he's about to return home to Texas with the Pirates playing a three-game set in Houston and pound a familiar wall, or anything.
"I leave work at work," said Duke, who spent nearly a month on the disabled list before returning right after the All-Star break. "I mean, the Padres pitched extremely well this whole series. You know it's going to be a battle. I feel consistent, I feel pretty good. It's a loss. But still I feel pretty good about how I pitched."
The Pirates didn't face San Diego's best starter this sweep, Mat Latos, but none of the bunch is a pushover.
Remove the visitors' five late runs Wednesday -- when Kevin Correia, like Jon Garland (11-8) Thursday, took a one-hitter into the seventh inning -- and the Pirates have mustered nine runs in five games with the NL West leaders this season. They're 0-6 against San Diego.
"Look at the way the Padres play: It's all pitching and defense," Duke said. "They're in a lot of ballgames. All year, it seems like they've been getting timely hits. It's definitely a good model."
"We got kicked three games," Pirates manager John Russell said. "What do you want to do? They pitched well, and we need to continue to battle. The guys show energy, but we've got to find a way to win."
Pick your parched well:
• The top five of the Pirates' order went a collective 1 for 17 Thursday. They struck out six times. They did, however, muster three of the club's four walks. Ryan Doumit, back at catcher after his first start of the season in right field Wednesday night, gave them half of their four hits.
• Alvarez's seven-game streak with both a hit and an RBI came to a halt against Garland and closer Heath Bell, whose 34th save gave him the major league lead. The Pirates' No. 5 batter walked in his opening at-bat, but struck out the next three at-bats -- his most whiffs in 10 games and only the third time in the past 40 games he accumulated so many.
• Lead-off hitter Andrew McCutchen ran his skid to 0 for 13 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. His average fell to .279, his lowest since the Pirates' visited Houston in late April.
"He hit the ball hard right at the third baseman, hit the ball into right-center, hit the ball hard to the shortstop," Russell said. "Eventually, he'll find a hole."
• Via walks, Doumit getting plunked by Garland and a fourth-inning single by Neil Walker, the Pirates were able to place two runners on base with two outs or fewer in the second, third and fourth innings. They couldn't do anything with it.
In the midst of that, the Padres got a Garland single, a sacrifice to move him to second and a Miguel Tejada double for a 1-0 lead in the third. No matter that Argenis Diaz, in his first major-league start, had a low throw and an error that got followed by a Ryan Ludwick two-run blast, his third homer this series. When the Padres score first, they're golden: 50-17 this magical season for them. It isn't so mystical on the other side, either: The Pirates are 11-52 when the opposition scores first.
"Go to Houston," Russell said, "and hopefully we can rebound there." The Pirates are 0-6 in Minute Maid Park this season.
At 39-75, the Pirates are seven defeats shy of clinching the long-inevitable, 18th consecutive losing season.
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.
