Tasser’s Take: With playoff hopes fading, Pirates’ new goal should be winning season

With the Pittsburgh Pirates losing games at an increasing frequency, I’ve come to a…With the Pittsburgh Pirates losing games at an increasing frequency, I’ve come to a realization: the franchise is letting me down again.

The cynical side of my baseball-obsessed brain has finally conquered the side that actually thought the Pirates would make the playoffs.

While we can all acknowledge that there is still mathematical hope — the Pirates are only three games out of the silly new second wild-card spot, which would earn them a game against the first wild card team — the realistic hope is beginning to fade.

The team is currently in a freefall that resembles last seasons’ second-half fiasco and every prior Pittsburgh baseball season I can recall from my childhood, causing reality to finally set in once again.

With playoff hopes seemingly gone, the Pirates’ attention now turns to the mere goal of reaching .500 for the first time in 20 years.

While this is an admirable goal — and truth be told, a goal all Pirate fans should be happy with — I was greedy this summer. Most of you, if you are indeed Buccos fans, undoubtedly felt the same way after Pittsburgh’s July hot streak took the team 16 games above that elusive .500 mark.

The Pirates were playing gritty baseball and having fun doing it, throwing up Zoltan Z’s — referencing the movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?” — and keeping pace with the much more talented Cincinnati Reds.

Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen was the most electrifying player in the game, veteran pitcher A.J. Burnett was making a case for the Cy Young Award after several disastrous seasons in New York, and even inconsistent third baseman Pedro Alvarez was on pace to hit 35 home runs and drive in 100 runs. All was well.

But then July ended, and August brought disaster.

The Pirates are a putrid 9-16 so far this month. McCutchen, who was the unanimous MVP front-runner after a scorching June and July, has seen his average drop 30 points. Although he still posts fantastic numbers and may still win the MVP, McCutchen spoiled fans beyond repair after hitting .450 for a two-month stretch. And Alvarez, while never being very good at making contact, now seems to have forgotten that he is paid to make contact at all, and let’s not even discuss his horrendous defensive play of late.

While the lineup now resembles the horrific offense the team produced in April and May, what’s worse is that the pitching staff, which picked the team up earlier this year on numerous occasions when the Pirates couldn’t hit, isn’t coming through anymore.

The tattooed, angry Burnett — who recently became even more of a fan favorite after he enthusiastically suggested for an opposing hitter to “sit the f*ck down” after striking said hitter out — has seen his ERA climb significantly. And the rest of the staff is pitching considerably worse, yet the team still won’t give any of its spectacular minor league starters an extended try.

At least the Pirates finally gave up on struggling pitcher Erik Bedard. Not even giving up six runs a game would make him look like he cared.

For a while, these Pirates had made this season seem special, but now hope is rapidly slipping away.

Maybe they still have some magic in them. Maybe they will go on a 2011-St.-Louis-Cardinals-like tear in September and make their last home stands against the Reds and the Atlanta Braves meaningful.

I want this team to prove me wrong, but two decades of disappointment never before witnessed by any major professional sports franchise can jade a person.

I’ve conceded that the Pirates aren’t going to make the MLB playoffs, but at least they can’t screw up securing a .500 for the first time since 1992, right? Right?

All I want to see at this point is this team win 82 games, and surely that isn’t too much to ask for.