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Bryan Reynolds foul-tips a pitch off the mask of the Cardinals' Pedro Pagés in the sixth inning Wednesday in St Louis.

Bryan Reynolds didn’t mince words when asked about the Pirates’ lack of offense and their lengthy losing streak, one that reached seven games with a 5-0 loss to the Cardinals in this afternoon’s series finale at Busch Stadium. 

“There should be concern, we’re just playing bad baseball,” Reynolds told me. “We’re just not hitting for the most part. We got some guys that are doing their jobs. It’s not easy, but every one of us has hit before, granted it’s the hardest thing to do in sports. But we just have to focus on the right things and just try to pass each at-bat to the next guy.”

In speaking about the offense, Reynolds was referring to the fact that the Pirates, now 12-26 and better than just two teams in Major League Baseball, were limited to four hits for the second straight game and shut out for an MLB-leading seventh time in 38 games. They've also been swept four times, including twice in the last week. Not a single hitter in today’s lineup has a batting average over .264 and six -- Oneil Cruz, Adam Frazier, Enmanuel Valdez, Tommy Pham, Liover Peguero and even Reynolds -- are hitting below .246. As a team the Pirates rank 27th in all of baseball with a .219 average and 29th with 118 runs scored. They rank 29th in averaging 3.19 runs per game.

“I always feel a responsibility to hit well because that’s what I’ve always done,” said Reynolds, who is currently batting .219 over 37 games and just .180 over his last 15. “I’ve just been bad so far. I’ve had stretches that are good. I just gotta figure out what’s going right in those stretches and extend them.”

So, what’s next? There has to be some sort of change on the horizon, right? 

Perhaps something needs to be done to help spark a club that has never had a winning season or even finished above fourth place in the National League Central under Derek Shelton’s leadership. Shelton is 306-440 (.410 winning percentage) since taking over the team in 2020 and his name is featured on the list of the 30-worst winning percentages for a major-league manager: 

Baseball Reference

There are only two managers on that list that have managed more games than Shelton -- Preston Gomez (875) and Jimmie Wilson (1237) -- and they both served in that capacity before 1980. The only other current-day manager who has really compiled a record as poor as Shelton is Athletics manager Mark Kotsay, who had a 199-324 record heading into today and has a .380 win percentage in his fourth season at the helm.

There are reasons why there's been such a lack of success during Shelton's tenure, too. And there are plenty of numbers that shine light on what has been a disappointing six-year stretch: 

• The Pirates have ranked among the bottom third MLB teams in hitting every year since Shelton’s tenure began. They ranked 28th in 2020 (.220), 25th in 2021 (.236), 29th in 2022 (.222), 24th in 2023 (.239) and 23rd in 2024 (.234). They’re right on pace to finish among MLB’s worst offensive teams once again this year.

• They’ve compiled the third-worst batting average (.231), the worst on-base percentage (.302) -- tied with the Tigers and Athletics -- and the worst slugging percentage (.369) in addition to having the second-worst WAR (34.4), besting only the Rockies (24), in Major League Baseball since 2020. 

• They’ve hit the least amount of home runs (686) and driven in the least amount of runs (2,756) during that span, while having the fifth-most errors (447), sixth-most blown saves (117) and the third-most walks allowed (2,668).

Given those numbers, it's no surprise as to why the Pirates have barely made any progress over the last six years. They did experience a 14-win jump from 2022 to 2023, but they've produced back-to-back 76-win seasons and are now on pace to win just 52 games while being outscored 746-503 this year. If that minus-243 run differential were to hold up, that would be the seventh-worst in franchise history. 

I asked Mitch Keller, who allowed just three runs in six innings to deliver a quality start on this day, if he thinks any sort of change is necessary to help the team turn things around. Instead of mentioning any type of change from above, Keller elected to acknowledge ways in which the players on the field can help create change. 

"I think we just need to keep going, honestly. There are some sh--ty things that happened out there today, balls bouncing the wrong way. But we also just have to come together. It's not like we're calling each other out, but we need to be more accountable on our side, in this clubhouse," Keller said. "For me, I gotta execute better. I can't give up little base hits for runs. I gotta know the situation. There's just a lot of things here, internally, that we have to clean up."  

The Pirates are currently in a spiral, and it doesn't seem as if there is any end in sight. This afternoon's performance was just the latest example as to why change is necessary, and perhaps long overdue. 

A day after just one run was scored on four hits in support of Paul Skenes, the Pirates were again limited to just four hits and struck out 10 times. Sonny Gray allowed two hits and struck out eight batters over seven scoreless innings.

"We just have to (keep our heads up). We have to figure out a way to get through this," Shelton said. "We've got to score runs. We're throwing the ball well and not getting anything to show for it."

Whether internal changes are made or not, the season will go on. There will be a game Friday at PNC Park and a series will be played this weekend against the visiting Braves. All Keller and the Pirates can do is take things game by game and try to find ways to salvage a season that has quickly become a disaster by the first week of May. 

"It's just like a starting pitcher. You can't get too high, you can't get too low. On the lows, with this game, you can't turn it into a roller coaster, that's for sure. You can't get too low, you can't get too high. I think that's the mentality going through. You just gotta ride the wave a little bit," Keller said. "We're obviously not where we want to be at this point. There's not one person in here that's happy about what's going on. I think we're gonna use that as motivation to drive us for the rest of the year."