PITTSBURGH - You can't win if you can't score.

The Pittsburgh Pirates headed to Houston this week with the most dormant offense in the National League, averaging three runs per game.

Only one team in baseball - Cleveland - has a lower team batting average than the Bucs' .230. Only one team - Oakland - has hit fewer doubles than the Pirates' 36.

No team in baseball has fewer hits, runs scored, total bases or home runs. Willie Stargell hit as many homers in April of 1971 - 11 - as the Pirates hit as a team in April of 2005.

"If you look at the statistics, we're not the only team struggling at the plate," Pirate general manager Dave Littlefield said. "If this happened in July, no one would have noticed it.

"Since it's happening at the beginning of the season … everything's magnified."

That's not to say Littlefield isn't concerned. He admits he's still scanning the rosters of other teams, looking for a hitter.

"I've wanted to add another power bat since the start of spring training," Littlefield said. "That hasn't changed."

No Pirate had hit more than two homers this year until Daryle Ward doubled that production by homering twice Sunday. He provided all of the offense in the team's 8-3 loss to San Francisco.

That game marked the 16th time in 23 games this season the Pirates scored three runs or fewer.

Ward had been considered a platoon player, but no more.

"There's no way I can take him out of the lineup," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "We're not seeing the ball very well at the plate right now. Daryle's one of the few guys who is."

Craig Wilson, last year's club leader in home runs with 29, has yet to homer this season and has just one extra-base hit in 65 at bats while striking out 21 times.

Last year's National League Rookie of the Year, Jason Bay has struck out 22 times in 89 at bats. Lead-off hitter Matt Lawton has fanned 17 times in 84 at bats.Shortstop Jack Wilson, a .308 hitter with 200 hits last year, ended April with a .163 batting average and just two walks.McClendon dropped him from No. 2 to No. 8 in the batting order as a result."An at bat is an at bat, whether it's in the second spot or eighth," Wilson said. "I belong in the eighth spot right now, the way I've been going, but I'm feeling a little better at the plate now."Such a feeling needs to become contagious."We just haven't put it together yet," Lawton said. "It will come."Littlefield agrees."All of these guys have hit well in the big leagues in the past," Littlefield said. "There's no reason to believe they won't come out of this."We've looked at videotape, done all of the mechanical stuff … Getting guys on base and hitting some home runs are essential to scoring runs and we're just not doing that right now."Ward said it's just a matter of a few line drives starting to find the gaps."You just hang in there and keep swinging," he said. "Balls weren't falling in for me earlier and I was hitting a lot of them on the button."Now they've been falling in for me. Hopefully, they'll start falling in for everybody and we can get a little excitement in this clubhouse."There wasn't a whole lot of that Sunday. The Pirates have dropped nine of 12 home games this year and began a 10-game road trip Monday night in Houston saddled with an 8-15 record.Only Colorado (6-16) has a worse mark in the National League."Hey, this might be just what we need," McClendon said. "This is all part of the dynamics of a season. When you have a young club not playing well at home, there's a tendency to press a lot."You go on the road for a while, relax a little bit. Hopefully we'll get our game on track and have a better showing at home next time."