PITTSBURGH — Leaning forward, both hands on his forehead, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Tracy tried to put a positive spin on what had just happened.

"We still won the series," he said, moments after watching his team turn a 6-0 lead into a 9-8 loss to Cincinnati on Thursday afternoon at PNCPark.

"We won two out of three. That's a positive. Just turn the page and move forward."

It sounds good in theory. Only his own players weren't buying it.

"After having this happen, winning the first two games of this series just doesn't mean very much,"outfielder Jason Bay said.

The Pirates headed to Cleveland for a weekend series coming off a loss that dropped them to 13-28 overall, 4-11 in one-run games and 6-18 against National League Central Division opponents.

After a 4-1 loss to the Indians Friday, they are now 13-29.

No other NLCentral team is under .500 against the rest of the division. Houston, Milwaukee and St. Louis are a combined 11-1 against the Pirates.

"We're playing good baseball,"center fielder Jose Bautista said. "We're not getting too many two-out RBIhits. This doesn't happen every day."

It seems to happen against the Pirates.

In a 4-3 loss to Florida a week ago, a none-out RBItriple by Craig Wilson put the tying run on third base — and from Jeromy Burnitz, Ron Paulino and Jose Castillo.

In Thursday's 9-8 loss to Cincinnati, Freddie Sanchez doubled to open the bottom of the ninth inning and moved to third on a Bay ground ball. Burnitz hit the first pitch he saw right to the first baseman in a drawn-in infield and Paulino grounded out to end the game.

Similar scenarios have happened before. The Pirates are 0-28 when trailing after eight innings, 0-26 when trailing after seven, 0-25 when trailing after six.

"It's frustrating because we've been so close,"Tracy said. "Those one-run losses hurt, all 11 of them.

"When you're down by a run or so in the seventh or eighth inning as much as we've been ... you expect to win some of those."

In 68 pinch-hit at bats this season, the Pirates have 14 hits and only six RBI.

"We're just not getting the clutch at-bat, the clutch hit when we need it,"Tracy said recently. "That's been the case for the last 11 or 12 days now.

"We've been so close. An inch here, a foot there — it's been the difference between making a catch or having a ball fall in.

"I believe that over a six-month season, those things do even themselves out. I still believe they will,"Tracy added.

Bautista concurred.

"We have been hitting a lot of balls hard, right at people," he said.

Tracy has juggled the lineup of late, leading off the batting order with Bautista every day at either third base or in center field and inserting Sanchez as the No. 3 hitter.

Both have thrived in such roles. Bautista's on-base percentage is over .425 as the Bucs' leadoff hitter while Sanchez is hitting .450 over the past nine games.

The Pirates' team batting average has climbed 18 points since those lineup changes. Still, the team ranked 14th in the National League in hitting (.250 average) and pitching (4.81 earned run average) heading into this weekend.

"What can you do?" Bay pondered. "Now we have interleague games. It's a crap-shoot every time you face a guy. Just go into Jacobs Field and try to win some ball games."