Based on everything I’ve read online, seen on social media, and heard on sports talk radio, local sports fans are infuriated with the Pittsburgh Pirates lately.

I can’t understand why. They did their part for the Western Pa. sports scene.

Our beloved Buccos walked us right up to the start of the Steelers preseason still relevant.

Then, they had the common decency to self-immolate at the most important point on their schedule, thus rendering themselves nothing more than an occasional distraction now that football season is starting.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s as much as we can possibly expect out of our city’s baseball team. I certainly have expected nothing more since roughly 1992. We should be applauding them, not condemning them.

What a completely selfless act.

Kudos to Derek Shelton and all of Ben Cherington’s assembled players. They didn’t just quietly remove themselves from the chat a few days before the Steelers’ preseason opener. They went over Niagara Falls in a barrel with 48 games remaining.

Now we can all focus on our fantasy football drafts without the distraction of a pesky playoff race.

On July 26, the Pirates opened a weekend series with the Arizona Diamondbacks at 52-50. That was good for 2½ games out of the final wild-card spot, with 12 games on the horizon against the Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres — two teams in front of them for the third (and final) wild-card spot.

• With season spiraling, Pirates count on starting pitching to serve as stoppers of losing streak • David Bednar blows another lead, as Padres score 3 runs in 9th to sweep reeling Pirates • Pirates place struggling reliever Colin Holderman on 15-day IL, DFA Edward Olivares

Since then, the Pirates have gone 4-8 amidst a maelstrom of fielding errors, bullpen collapses, managerial malfeasance, thwarted comebacks and empty roster moves.

Seven of those losses have come against the Padres and Diamondbacks with three more contests coming against the Padres in San Diego next week.

Of course, those games are sandwiched in between three games on the road against the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers and three games at home against the American West-leading Seattle Mariners.

Best of luck, Shelty.

The Pirates are now 56-58, 4½ games out of the third wild-card spot and nine games behind the Milwaukee Brewers atop the National League Central. They are also losers of six of seven and are generally circling the drain.

Come to think of it, given the embarrassing warning track rain delay incident Tuesday night, perhaps “circling the drain” is a poor turn of phrase on my part.

Among the lowlights during this hideous stretch of baseball ineptitude:

• Reliever Colin Holderman had to be placed on the 15-day “injured” list. His alleged ailment is a right wrist injury in the wake of yielding 11 runs in his last 5⅓ innings.

• Closer David Bednar has blown his last two save opportunities. He is up to five on the season now. His ERA is 5.77. He’s more like Mike Williams than he is Kent Tekulve. If this guy wasn’t the rolly-polly, good-natured, Iron City-chugging hometown boy from Mars, we’d be running him ‘aht-ah-‘tahn like Matt Canada.

• Recently acquired outfielder Bryan De La Cruz is 4 for 27 with 10 strikeouts and no extra-base hits. Recently acquired utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa is 5 for 23.

• Shortstop Oneil Cruz has committed eight errors since July 27 and 22 during the season.

• A bright spot for much of the season, pitcher Luis Ortiz has given up 13 earned runs in his last three starts

• Regular contributors Michael A. Taylor, Yasmani Grandal, Ji Hwan Bae and Jared Triolo are all hitting under .200.

• So are Jack Suwinski and Henry Davis. That’s why they have been demoted.

• Many of Shelton’s recent decisions regarding when to bunt, when to pinch hit, when to steal, and when to pull pitchers have blown up in his face like Wile E. Coyote playing with an Acme stick of dynamite.

via GIPHY

The good news is that an NFL preseason game is taking place at the other end of the parking lot on Friday night. That means — aside from the occasional Paul Skenes start littered by a lack of run support, fielding disasters, bullpen catastrophes and managerial negligence — the foibles of the Local Nine will be largely disregarded until spring training of next year.

So, thanks again, fellas. You got us this far. It’s more than I expected.

Let the fifth-string running backs take it from here.

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