BREAKING: THE PIRATES STINK AGAIN

METS 8PIRATES 4Lost in a sea of championship-level hockey and Steeler draft picks with awe-inspiring YouTube clips, the declining play of the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates has greatly slid underneath the radar of a preoccupied Pittsburgh fan base.On Sunday, the Pirates had a chance to reverse their fortunes, in the third of a three-game set with the New York Mets. Unfortunately, the status quo of nausea-inducing baseball remained the same.The Buccos dropped this one by an 8-4 count, their eighth loss in a row and 12th in the past 13 games, putting them a mere 1.5 behind Cleveland for the worst record in all of Major League Baseball. It's gotten so bad that 1-5 Ian Snell was reduced to accusing the Mets of stealing signs on Sunday. Ugh.While the Pirates were at least able to make contact at the plate on Sunday with 11 hits, they stranded 11 runners. Timely hitting, something the Pirates have been traditionally reluctant to embrace, is still not an asset of the team's offense. And S...