I have one question.

The person last week in this space who was talking about how the Pittsburgh Pirates got off to a nice start by taking two out of three games from the Philadelphia Phillies and how the Pittsburgh Penguins grabbed a much-needed win against the Philadelphia Flyers before heading into the playoff series with them — who was that guy?

Seriously, talk about your reversal of fortunes.

Since that column seven days ago, the Penguins dropped the first three games to the Flyers — a 4-3 defeat in Game 1 after having a 3-0 lead after the first period, then the next two losses by surrendering eight goals in each contest.

Eight goals?! The Penguins could have played the worst team in the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets (27-45-7), and still not put up eight goals in consecutive games.

These are the NHL playoffs and the Penguins have decided it’s too nice outside not to golf, as hockey players are known to do upon elimination.

The Penguins were supposed to be back to full strength and ready to make another Stanley Cup run.

Now, it’s more of a “wait till next year” kind of season.

In the team’s 8-4 loss on Sunday, the Pens couldn’t beat the Flyers, so it tried to beat the Flyers. Arron Asham’s cheap crosscheck of Brayden Schenn and James Neal’s cheap shots on Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux was beneath the Penguins’ style, the very thing owner Mario Lemieux wants the NHL to clean up.

I mean, to allow four power-play goals in one game is atrocious and six in three games is unacceptable and very sloppy.

I give goalie Marc-Andre Fleury some of the blame, but not all. The Pens have abandoned their defense and, in turn, abandoned Fleury.

The Pens are having trouble clearing passes in front of Fleury, having a Flyer flick the puck and score at point-blank range before the netminder even has a chance to react.

To quote an old baseball man, manager Casey Stengel when he took charge of the 1962 New York Mets, “Can’t anybody play this game?”

Speaking of baseball, the Pirates could ill-afford to fall into a hole early.

After that 2-1 start, the team went on a five-game losing streak, dropping three games to the Los Angeles Dodgers and two to the San Francisco Giants — including a near perfect game by Matt Cain — before pulling out a 4-1 win Sunday.

So, the past week wasn’t a total loss around here.

Much like last year, the Pirates’ pitching kept the team relevant through mid July, even enjoying a first-place tie and six games over .500.

The pitching has been strong so far — a 2.57 ERA despite the 3-7 record — but hitting, again, has disappointed.

Can you believe a .188 batting average and a 2.0 runs-per-game average? And this after the team scored four runs and eight hits on Sunday.

The Bucs have time to right the ship and if they get through this early stretch of scheduling, they can stay competitive.

The Penguins, however, not so much.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.