[Insert Witty Title Here]

After a promising start to the second half of the season, the Pirates have dropped their last four games to bring their second half record to 5-6. Tonight’s loss followed an all-too-familiar pattern:

1. Give up lots of runs in first few innings
2. Score lots of runs, but not enough to overcome deficit

This game further accentuates what I have been complaining about all season: we need some decent starting pitching. You can’t expect to have success without a couple of solid starters and we have no solid starters. Ian Snell, with a 4.84 ERA, has the lowest ERA of any of the Pittsburgh starters. Every other starter has an ERA above 5. Here’s an interesting tidbit I gleaned from ESPN.com tonight: Pirates starting pitching has an ERA of 5.46 over 555 innings pitched, which is good for 27th place out of 30. This is why the Pirates are not winning games. In contrast, the Pirates bullpen has a 3.93 ERA over 325 innings, which is good for 9th place in the Majors. The Pirates’ offense is fine, their defense is fine, and even their bullpen is fine. However, if they can’t get some decent starters, we will be forced to endure the recurring nightmare of games lost almost before they have begun, due to our starting pitching.