I'm not going to bash the Bucs.

I don't have to. Opponents are bashing the Pirates enough.

I'm sure things will get better eventually.

After all, they can't get much worse.

It's hard to believe that after 17 consecutive losing seasons, the club hadn't reached rock bottom.

Until last week.

To the Pirates and their fans, here's what rock bottom looked like through Monday's game:

• During the seven-game losing streak, the Buccos were outscored 72-12.

• The Pirates had allowed 31 more runs than anyone else in baseball.

• The team ERA was 7.74. Opponents were batting .390 against them.

• The Milwaukee Brewers have been particularly abusive, outscoring the Pirates 53-4 in the first four games of the season series.

• The record could have been much, much worse. Of the club's first seven wins, four came by one run and another by two.

All of that is uglier than Randy Johnson with a mullet.

You have to give the Pirates some credit, though. After all those bludgeonings by the Brewers, the Pirates responded with two dramatic wins Tuesday and Wednesday.

Still, the Bucs are on precarious footing. It may just have been the Brewers were dead tired after running around the bases so much during the first four games.

Pitching has been the main culprit and will continue to be. It's so bad, it might soon inspire a Double Eye Patch Night promotion at PNC Park.

With a rotation featuring batting practice pitchers, the Bucs are getting bullied.

Paul Maholm leads the staff with a 4.74 ERA. Every other starter has an ERA over 6.

Opposing hitters must salivate when they see Daniel McCutchen and Charlie Morton warming up in the bullpen before a game.

It was like when you were a kid playing Little League and saw the dude with the slowest, straightest fastball take the mound. You couldn't wait to take your hacks and improve the ol' batting average.

The pitching staff has become the "Slump Busters."

These things tend to even out.

Zach Duke will pitch better and Ross Ohlendorf will come off the disabled list soon to give the team three legitimate starting pitchers.

For all the prime prospects the club has in its system, precious few of them are pitchers.

Until the Pirates can cultivate some major-league ready arms, the summers will continue to be long and losing ones.

The main problem with the pitching staff is every pitcher is basically the same. They are all mostly soft tossers.

When they can't paint the corners with the precision of a miniaturist, they get rocked.

The Pirates need power arms, strikeout arms. They need dudes who can get out of jams with heat. They need a Tim Lincecum, a Stephen Strasburg, an Aroldis Chapman.

They don't have one — yet.

Until they do, the beat — and the beatings — will go on.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.