And they really, really, really can't hit.

And they can't hit to the extreme that even when they do hit or reach base, they run out of hits in a hurry.

Good morning to you. Good. Wednesday morning, I'm Dan Kovachvich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is daily shot of pirates. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're in, too, football and or hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this. Mets 2, Pirates 1, it doesn't matter.

I'm going to rotate the names in and out of these storylines, and you might not even

be able to tell the difference depending on how sharp your memory is morning after a game.

Mitch Keller pitched really well.

Seven innings, two runs, five hits, eight strikeouts, one walk against a zillion dollar lineup.

You can't ask for more from your starter.

You just can't.

And between what Mitch did last night, what Paul Skeens did the previous night, which was one run on six innings, you really should have come out of there with a

couple of Ws. Instead, you got a couple of L's because that's what this lineup is.

0 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

I'm not somebody who brings up that stat very often, but I do feel comfortable doing so whenever it's seven total hits, two for extra bases, and there were five walks to account for the remainder of all those base runners, 12 of whom would end up being left on base total.

That's pathetic. I can't come up with a kind word for that. That's pathetic.

Here's some numbers for you, courtesy of Eric Bowser on our staff here at D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

Last 10 games, Pirates are 2 and 8.

In those 10 games, you're not going to believe this.

They've had seven quality starts.

That means officially six innings of three earned runs or less.

Seven quality starts in 10 games, but they're 2 and 8.

Also, and not coincidentally, in those same 10 games, they've scored a total of 18 runs.

Obviously 1.8 per game.

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