John Russell's fate as manager of the Pirates should come down to the final two months of the season.

The Pirates entered this weekend sporting a 38-70 record. They would need to go 25-29 the rest of the way to avoid losing 100 games.

That is unlikely.

If the Bucs go 20-34, their final record would be 58-104.

That is unacceptable.

If this organization is all about accountability — and that premise is questionable — the time has come to hold someone accountable.

In 2010, the Pirates have incurred losing streaks of 12 games once, seven games twice, six games once and five games twice.

They've had two players tagged out while standing on third base. They screwed up an infield fly rule. Lastings Milledge lost a fly ball in the sun because he never flipped his sunglasses over his eyes, laughed about it, and returned to his position in right field.

Zach Duke never countered after watching a Dodgers pitcher throw at Andrew McCutchen.

After his team scored all of two runs during a recent weekend sweep by St. Louis — the 13th time the Pirates have been swept in a series this year — Russell was quoted as saying he thought his hitters swung the bats well.

Accountability?

Where?

The Pirates entered this weekend sporting a 25-28 record at home, a 13-42 record on the road. If nothing else indicates a lack of focus, those numbers certainly do.

This team has reached a critical juncture on its road to rebuilding. The core of the future — McCutchen, Neil Walker, Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez — is here.

Walker is hitting over .300. Tabata and McCutchen are hovering around .290 and Alvarez, though a strikeout machine, still hit eight home runs in his first 150 major league at-bats.

But the losing culture remains and it needs to disappear fast. Poor baseball cannot be tolerated.

Monday night against Cincinnati, Ross Ohlendorf had leadoff hitter Brandon Phillips in an 0-2 count to start the game, then walked him. Phillips came around to score and the Reds never trailed that night.

With a 5-1 lead Thursday night against Colorado, Sean Gallagher walks the first two batters he faced in the eighth. When the Pirates had a 5-0 lead an inning earlier, they had runners at first and second with none out.

Those guys never moved.

Yes, the Pirates need starting pitching. Hopefully, that's being developed.

They also have to play the game right, manufacture runs and be held accountable for their inexcusable performance.

We're not seeing it with Russell.

If that doesn't change over these next two months, perhaps it's time we saw someone else.