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MILWAUKEE -- And this, essentially, is why they are the Pirates.
There is misfortune: Evan Meek, one of their best relievers and the lone All-Star, was struck on the right hand by a line drive in the eighth inning of the 8-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday afternoon at Miller Park. It was only a bruise -- "Very lucky," as he put it -- and all concerned expect him to resume pitching soon. But it still marked, remarkably, the third pitcher felled by a liner this summer.
There is misery: Charlie Morton spent three months in the minors, all aimed at upgrading his performance and mental approach, and he returned looking like precisely the same pitcher with a painful line of eight runs over 3 1/3 innings.
There is misadventure: Ronny Cedeno, with runners at the corners, nobody out and the pitcher on deck, independently decided to put down a bunt.
And, of course, there is Milwaukee: The Brewers swept the three-game set, finished 13-5 against the Pirates for the season, and have taken 40 of the past 48 in this stadium.
"It's tough right now, no question," manager John Russell said.
"We're doing some good things, getting some big hits at times, some good pitching, and we're just not putting it together," first baseman Garrett Jones said. "It's just a matter of having everything come together."
Game: Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs, 8:05 p.m., Wrigley Field.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: LHP Paul Maholm (7-12, 4.82) vs. RHP Carlos Zambrano (5-6, 4.64).
Season: Pirates, 9-3.
Key matchup: A battle of rookies. Jose Tabata ranks second in the National League in hits since the All-Star break with 56, trailing only the Cubs' Starlin Castro with 62.
Of note: Take away the Pirates' 4-2 record at Wrigley and 2-1 record at Denver's Coors Field, and they are 7-48 in all other road venues.
For now, it would appear that things are falling apart.
Setting aside any specific opponent, the Pirates have lost 16 of their past 20, as well as their past 13 on the road. The overall record of 43-87 has them on pace to finish 53-109, a .331 winning percentage that would be fourth-worst in the franchise's 124 years.
Isolating on the starting pitching, the team's greatest shortcoming: Morton's record dropped to 1-10, adding a fifth double-digit loser to the list, first time for that since 1954. Zach Duke is 6-12, Paul Maholm 7-12, Ross Ohlendorf 1-11 and Jeff Karstens 2-10.
When that was mentioned to Russell after this one, he tersely replied, "Yeah, we've broken a lot of records this year."
What was not broken Sunday provided the best news.
With two outs in the eighth and Meek doing mopup duty with the Pirates behind, 8-4 -- Russell never used Meek in the 8-7, 11-inning loss the previous night because, "We'd need him for the save if we got the lead" -- Meek joined Chris Jakubauskas and Ross Ohlendorf on the list of pitchers felled by liners this year.
Milwaukee's Ryan Braun belted a hanging slider, and Meek raised both hands across his torso in a defensive posture. The ball struck Meek on the back of the right hand, near the pinky, and he fell back onto the mound.
"I had no time," Meek said. "Had my hand not been in the way, I don't know if it would have been high enough ... I'm just glad it wasn't at my face. We had some instances earlier in the year of guys getting hit. It's not fun. It's just not fun."
After a minute, Meek was ushered off the field with athletic trainer Brad Henderson ominously holding the arm aloft. But X-rays showed no fracture, and the immediate prognosis was that Meek might resume activity once swelling subsides. No mention was made of the disabled list.
"He'll be day to day," Russell said. "He's going to be pretty sore for a few days, get the swelling out of it. But the great news is that there's no fracture."
"Not being broken is the big thing," Meek said. "Hopefully, the swelling goes down, and I'll get back out there soon."
So will Morton, Russell said, not hesitating when asked if he will remain in the rotation despite giving up nine hits, two walks, a hit batsman, adding up to 12 batters reaching safely out of 21. Morton nibbled with the fastball, had little command of the oft-used offspeed stuff, and it culminated with three runs in each of the first and third innings, and his final pitch serving up Braun's two-run home run in the fourth.
That gave Milwaukee an 8-3 lead.
"He just didn't execute quality pitches," Russell said. "I think he threw a few too many offspeed pitches and didn't get aggressive with his fastball."
Morton took a far more direct approach to assessing his pitching.
"It was really bad," he said. "It's frustrating. I'll have to shake it off and get back out there."
His ERA, frozen on 9.35 all summer, somehow rose to 10.03.
Cedeno's dubious bunt came in the second with Milwaukee ahead by 3-2, so it loomed larger at the time than at the end.
Ryan Doumit led off with a walk, and Lastings Milledge's single moved him to third. Cedeno fouled off one pitch, then bunted up the first-base line. Pitcher Dave Bush flipped to first for an easy out, Doumit staying put and Milledge taking second. The official scorer in the press box, understandably, had a long hesitation before ruling it a sacrifice bunt.
Two quick outs later, the score had not changed.
"We'd like not to do that with nobody out with the pitcher on deck," Russell said. "I talked to him about it. It's a nice play maybe with one out or you have a pinch-hitter on deck. If he gets the ball past the pitcher, we get a run. But, in that situation, you'd like to extend the inning."
Cedeno had tried the same thing the previous night, same inning, also with runners at the corners and no outs. He fouled off that attempt and wound up striking out. The lone difference was that he was batting seventh rather than eighth.
"They talked to me, and I understand," Cedeno said of the bunt Sunday. "In that situation, I need to try to drive the ball."
The Pirates hit three home runs for a second consecutive game: Neil Walker's seventh and second in as many days brought a 2-0 lead in the first. Doumit hit his 11th in the fourth inning and reached base all four times up. Delwyn Young hit his sixth in the seventh inning.
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.
