Starting Five: Bucs Are Bottoming Out

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Pittsburgh Pirates keep finding new lows.

Apparently a North American professional sports record 17th straight losing season wasn't enough of an indignity, so the 2009 Bucs went out and put together the second-worst 24-game stretch in the franchise's 123-year history.

The Pirates lost for the 21st time in their last 24 games Tuesday night, a 10-4 defeat suffered at the hands of the Reds.

"It's no fun, that's for sure," Pirates manager John Russell said. "It bothers every player in that clubhouse and everyone on our coaching staff. All we can do, though, is come back tomorrow and prepare ourselves to come back out and try to win a game."

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"It's wearing," losing pitcher Zach Duke said. "We need a win and a well-played game right now. We need one desperately."

The last time the Pirates played this poorly over a similar stretch, Benjamin Harrison was president. The year was 1890.

From the Trainer's Room ...
All-Star catcher Brian McCann is day-to-day after taking a foul ball off of his left wrist in the Braves' 3-1 win over the Mets. McCann came out of the game in the fourth inning after suffering the injury in the bottom of the third. X-rays were negative.

Numbers Game ...
Mark Reynolds struck out three times in Arizona's 10-8 win over San Francisco, helping break his own single-season record for strikeouts. Before Tuesday night it was 204. Now, it's 206 ... and climbing. The question, of course, is does anyone care beyond the general numerical fascination with baseball and records?

People tend to abhor strikeouts -- maybe because it seems like the ultimate failure not even being able to put the ball in play -- but really we have an abundance of evidence that shows they aren't really worse than any other kind of out. Enter Reynolds who, other than all the whiffs, is having a great season, with 43 home runs, 100 RBI and a .919 OPS. Maybe we're all just ready to move on. The Diamondbacks sure seem to be.

"So what?" Reynolds said when asked about the strikeouts. "So what?"
...
"Deep down inside, I'm sure it bothers him more than he likes to portray," manager A.J. Hinch said. "At the end of the day, he is 40-plus home runs and 100 RBIs. That's a productive season, for anyone to really focus on the strikeout record being reset. When that production is coming with the strikeouts, it's almost a moot point. We all want him to be a more productive player and strike out less, but when the production follows, it is hard to knock him."

In Their Own Words ...
"Edwin was just what the doctor ordered. We needed a big outing from him and we got it." -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland on Edwin Jackson, who pitched seven shutout innings, all with the score either tied 0-0 or 1-0 in Detroit's favor, to preserve his club's 2 1/2-game lead over the Twins in the AL Central. Jackson had posted a 6.03 ERA over his previous five starts, a rough stretch pitching coach Rick Knapp believes may have been caused by him tipping his pitches. Jackson and Knapp worked on the apparent problem this week, and it appears Detroit's No. 2 starter in the playoffs is rounding back into form.

Of course, the Tigers have to get there first, and Minnesota isn't making things easy on them. The Twins stayed right on their heels in the division with an 8-6 win against the White Sox.

Advance Scouting ...
The Yankees were the first team to clinch a playoff spot, but the Cardinals could become the first to clinch their division Wednesday night. St. Louis, which has a magic number of two, will send John Smoltz to the mound in Houston (8:05 PM ET), needing a victory and a Cubs loss to officially lock up the NL Central. Chicago is going for a three-game sweep of the Brewers in Milwaukee (8:05 PM ET) with spot starter Jeff Samardzija on the hill.