The Pirates opened their three-game series against the Rangers at Globe Life Field on Monday on a one-game losing streak or winners of two of their past three games–depending on how full your glass was as a fan.

If you were one of those “We won the series, and that’s really all that matters” types, you may have gone with the more optimistic perspective, even if Pittsburgh dropped the final game of a three-game weekend series vs. the Mariners at PNC Park on Sunday. Pittsburgh came back home on a 10-game slide last Friday night, so the simple fact that it took two of three was perhaps a sign of getting back on track.

Then, Monday night happened, and the Pirates fell by a score of 4-3 to the defending World Series champion Rangers. Luis Ortiz did okay for himself as the starting pitcher, allowing four runs on five hits over six innings while striking out seven batters and walking one. Unfortunately, Corey Seager was his nemesis and plated all four runs on two homers–a solo shot in the bottom of the first and a three-run blast in the bottom of the third. Jared Triolo quickly got the Pirates back into the game with a three-run home run of his own in the top of the fourth inning, but that was all the scoring either team would do on the night.

The bullpen obviously did okay after Ortiz exited for the night, but the offense spent the next five innings failing to tally one more run, as the Pirates left a total of seven runners on base for the evening.

There’s always something off with these Pirates. If it’s not the hitters, it’s the bullpen. It’s sometimes the starting pitching but usually not. That should signal to the front office that it must address a few key areas in the offseason as it pertains to the offense and relievers. Clearly, this roster isn’t good enough to be carried by the starting rotation, even with Paul Skenes doing most of the heavy lifting.

But that’s the offseason’s problem. As for the 2024 regular season, the Pirates are now officially on another losing streak and have used up all of the momentum that they gathered by taking two straight over Seattle. What was a two-game winning streak has now morphed into 14 losses in their last 17 games.

Pittsburgh is 58-66 and in the basement of the National League Central Division, 14 games behind the first-place Brewers. The Buccos are eight games out of the last wildcard spot. They have five teams to climb over before reaching one of those spots.

Oh well, one can only wonder how invested the fans and media would still be right now had the Pirates managed to go 4-6 over 10 games as opposed to losing them all. Instead of their current 58-66 record, they’d be 62-62 and just four games out of a playoff spot. There might still be hope that a lengthy winning streak could put them over the top.

Now, all a lengthy winning streak will do is get the Buccos closer to .500.

The Pirates have learned to crawl this year, but it doesn’t look like they’ll figure out how to walk before the 162nd game.