Listen, that was bad. That was just bad. I'm not talking about the five-game losing streak, although I could be.

I just mean that game yesterday. Good Friday morning. I'm David Kvachvich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

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Pirates 5 yesterday at PNC Park. St. Louis comes away with a four-game sweep. The pirates,

to repeat, have lost five in a row, going back to Sunday in Milwaukee.

And they're now 16 and 16.

So after all that fun and all that fuss, on the 1st of May, they're a 500 team.

And for as much as I've been looking for underlying data and metrics to support that this is a good team.

Ultimately, to be a good team, you have to not lose a whole bunch of games in a row.

And you especially have to not lose them the way you did yesterday.

And start with the starter, Paul Skeens, needs to be,

and obviously has been, the stopper in your rotation.

It wasn't this time.

Gave up two home runs in the first inning, a couple other cheapy runs, but for him to go through five innings and have a five run line,

four of those were earned, eight hits against skeins, yeah, you can forget all about the nine

strikeouts have to start stronger than that, because even then when the pirates do rally to keep it interesting, a couple of doubles

by Brian Reynolds, one of them bringing in two runs, Brandon Lau's eighth home run.

You're thinking maybe there's something.

Isaac Mattson comes in and gives up a handful, five runs on three hits and a couple of walks, just two-thirds

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