If you’ve been reading the Butler Eagle, you probably noticed the ad about trying to guess when the Pittsburgh Pirates were going to win their 81st game of the year.

In doing so, that win would guarantee the squad its first non-losing season since 1992. Another win, No. 82, would change that to the first winning season since 1992.

A few of us here in the office tried our hand in taking a guess — just for fun — more than three weeks ago and it seems we’re a pretty optimistic bunch.

Yours truly picked Sept. 12 — which is tomorrow, by the way — Mike Kilroy chose Sept. 14, Derek Pyda Sept. 16 and John Enrietto Sept. 18.

After last night’s game at Cincinnati, the Pirates are at 72-68.

Four games over doesn’t sound so bad, but not when you realize the team was at its high-water mark of 16 games over .500 for the last time on Aug. 8 (63-47).

Quick math will show you the Pirates are 9-21 since then and have fallen behind for the second National League wild-card spot.

What’s worse is the Pirates have gone 2-7 since taking two out of three games from St. Louis, the team they are chasing for the second-wild card spot.

At 70-60 on Aug. 29, the Pirates were one game behind the Cardinals for that aforementioned spot.

The team had shaken off being swept in San Diego (Aug. 20-22) and losing two of three to the Milwaukee Brewers before winning the series against the Cardinals.

However, in the past nine games, the Pirates have started to feel the pressure of holding on to a shot at a winning record.

Being swept by a struggling Milwaukee Brewers team was followed by taking two of three games from the Astros, the worst team in Major League Baseball, then being swept by the Cubs, who entered the series 35 games below .500 and 21 games out of first place in the National League Central.

The problem? As it turned out like last season, the pitching has slipped and the hitting has faltered.

Last year’s epic collapse of 19-43 down the stretch left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and another losing season. This year, we swore it was different. Too much solid pitching would not allow this to happen.

Hitting, however, has not been good. The team is batting .245, its on-base percentage is .304 and slugging percentage is .400.

That’s not going to get you anywhere — unless you’re the Oakland A’s, who have continued their ascent in the second half, unlike the Pirates.

The Pirates were looking for games against the Cubs and Astros to pad their wins and make a late push for the playoffs.

After the series against the Reds, the Pirates are at Chicago, then home against Milwaukee, at Houston, at the New York Mets, then home to wrap up the regular season with Cincinnati and the Atlanta Braves.

A shot at the playoffs is gone. The Pirates can only hope to salvage a winning season. To lose that would be a crushing blow for the franchise.

Much like my ego for picking tomorrow.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.