How they scored

First inning, year to date:

Pirates, 7
The other team, 24.

Second and third innings:

Pirates, 11
The other team, 24.

Fourth through ninth innings:

Pirates, 68
The other team, 65.

How have they outscored their opponents in the last five or six innings and not won more games on the late-inning rally? Because the other team has been, to borrow a football phrase, running out the clock. It's not so much that other teams have used bad pitchers to protect their leads. Rather, it's that those pitchers are letting the Pirates hit their way out of innings. If you have a 6-0 lead in the top of the fifth, who cares if the Pirates score one run? If you are leading 3-1 in the top of the ninth, you'll give the Pirates one run. If it's 7-0 and the Pirates come to bat in the bottom of the sixth, it's a good time to throw the ball where the Pirates can hit it. They score three runs? No big deal--you still lead by four. There's no need to waste pitches, especially if, as the starter, you feel some pressure to go seven or eight innings now that you have a seven-run lead.

The Bucs are fooling themselves if they think they have been in many games. This is how they are 5-15 and not 7-12 or some other better record. The two come-from-behind victories against LA are not enough to earn the "we scrap and are in every game" badge, especially since they squandered three leads in the Milwaukee series.

Game after game, they fall behind. And they stay behind. The game ends, and they have lost. That's how they are 5-15.