Things can’t possibly be going any worse for the Pittsburgh Pirates right now.

Coming into this afternoon’s tilt with the San Diego Padres, the Pirates were looking to avoid losing their tenth straight loss. Having been swept by the Padres back at home, then on the road vs the Dodgers, the Pirates were also looking to avoid being swept for the third consecutive time.

Neither one of those streaks were broken today, as the Pirates were massacred by San Diego 8-1 at Petco Park. Mitch Keller was on the hook for all 8 earned runs against, including surrendering multiple home runs.

The Pirates offense could not get anything going, once again, and routinely found ways to strand any runners they had on bases.

But as if things couldn’t get any worse for this team, they got absolutely carved up by their old friend Martín Pérez.

Pérez went 5.1 strong innings, limiting the Pirates to just 5 hits and 2 free passes (a walk and a hit batter).

Pérez’s 8 strikeouts were the highlight of his day, however. It was a new season high for him, fittingly against the team where he first set his old season high of 7. Pérez struck out 7 batters twice for the Pirates in April, and did so once already with the Padres.

His only mistake, if you could even call it one, was giving up a solo homer to Joey Bart, who made the game 8-1 when he sent one deep into the left field seats.

But he looked today like the dominant starter that the Pirates were hoping they had found during the winter.

Pérez, who came to Pittsburgh on a one year deal in free agency, struggled mightily with the Pirates. He finished his Pirates tenure with a 2-5 record, 5.20 ERA, and 1.651 WHIP.

But despite his vastly underwhelming performance, he lucked out just at the right time. Pérez was traded at the deadline to San Diego, who gave up an 18-year old arm in exchange.

Pérez was unknowingly being given a ticket off of a Pirate ship that was days away from doing it’s best Titanic impression.

He now gets to rebound with a red hot Padres team that is 20-5 in their last 25 games. Season-long, the Padres now sit at 69-53 and are headed to the postseason.

Pittsburgh is now all the way down to 56-64, even further in the dungeon-like basement of the NL Central. It was just two weeks ago that this team had bought at the deadline, making trades to bring in guys like Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan De La Cruz, and looking poised to make a serious run for a wild card spot in the National League.

Now, the Pirates are playing the worst baseball in MLB (and yes, that includes the Chicago White Sox) and have erased themselves from any playoff discussion.

Pérez, meanwhile, has been a stellar addition so far for the Padres. In 18.1 innings for San Diego (through 3 starts), Pérez has pitched to a 1.96 ERA, 0.760 WHIP, and opponents are batting just .164 against him. He has 21 strikeouts to just 3 walks.

He has been the beneficiary of some quality defense behind him, but today he showed a lot of reasons why his numbers are looking a whole lot better out west. It couldn’t have worked out better for Martín – or the Padres.

But back in Pittsburgh, literally everything that can go wrong for this team did go wrong over this losing streak that has eclipsed double digits. It’s hard to even come up with words at this point.

Losing to Martín Pérez, especially in the way they did, is the worst part of this streak. But there’s a depressingly high chance that it becomes only the second, or third most embarrassing thing to happen to this team if this streak keeps up much longer.

(Featured photo by Denis Poroy/AP)