After the Pittsburgh Pirates’ ninth straight defeat Wednesday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs, starting pitcher Rich Hill tried to keep things in perspective.

“Work. That is the key identity to winning cultures and winning clubs. They show up every day,” Hill said. “Failure is necessary in order to show everyone that the work is important.”

I think I know where Hill is going with that. That last sentence is a great saying for the side of a coffee mug or for an “inspirational quote of the day” calendar.

But if the Pirates haven’t figured out that they need to work hard at this point in the season, then continued failure may not be the best thing to get that message across.

In fact, my guess is that the failure of these Pirates isn’t so much about work ethic as it is that they just aren’t good enough. And that the 20-9 record through the end of April was a fluke and 14-30 since then is a lot closer to the real thing.

The lessons of failure should’ve been learned by now. This group has lost 30 out of its last 44, nine games in a row and three series in a row to division rivals. The Pirates have seen themselves drop from a 34-30 record, atop the National League Central 10 days ago, to 34-39 and fourth place right now. That’s a full five games behind the division-leading Cincinnati Reds.

“It’s just a little bit of a funk right now,” third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes said after Wednesday’s 8-3 loss to the Cubs. “It’s got to be better on both sides of the ball. We just haven’t been aggressive attacking hitters. I feel like we are walking too many guys. We’re pitching with guys on base. On the flip side, on offense, we’re not putting together good at-bats. We’re not getting lead-off guys starting the inning. So, really, it’s just all that, and then a little bit of bad luck mixed in there as well.”

Hayes is right about one thing. It is all that. And more.

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Personally, I would’ve tossed in some spotty fielding (like his rare error Wednesday) and occasionally questionable baserunning before I would’ve referenced bad luck. But if his general point is that it’s not one thing with the Pirates, it’s everything, then he’s on the nose.

Hayes has been scuffling as much as anyone. Since his 5-for-5 performance versus the New York Mets on June 9, Hayes is 8 for 41 (.195) with no walks and 15 strikeouts. In that span, he has no extra base hits and just two RBIs.

It’s not just Hayes, though. The whole team has been lousy at the plate. During the club’s nine-game losing streak, it has been outscored 63-20. Pirates hitters have left 56 men on base while scoring just those 20 runs. They have been shut out three times. The collective batting average has been .179. With runners in scoring position, the Pirates are 4 for 51 (.078). They’ve failed to get a hit in those situations in each of the last five games, an 0 for 24 drought.

“I wish I had the million-dollar answer to that right now because, offensively, we’ve got to get out of this funk that we’re in,” manager Derek Shelton said after Wednesday’s loss. “I mean, we had two hits today. We created opportunities, but they’re through walks. We’ve got to figure this out. We have some young kids that are struggling to keep their head above water, and we’ve got to stay with them.”

My guess is that it’s not a “million-dollar answer” at all. Maybe it’s a $76.5 million question. As in, how do you win with MLB’s third-lowest payroll in the league? The Pirates don’t have enough quality veteran players in their primes, and the youthful clay that they have is far from molded.

That goes for the pitching too. The staff’s ERA during the losing streak is 6.72.

Hayes was asked “what the conversations are like” among the players as they try to figure out a way to snap this extended skid. He struggled for an answer.

“You can’t really try to — I don’t really know how to word it. If you try to do that too much, you start to press a little bit. We’ve just got to find a way to be better on both sides of the ball,” Hayes said.

I agree with Hayes here. The Pirates aren’t going to speak themselves into better baseball. They are way beyond big-speech time. Players-only meetings aren’t the answer.

Hitting better, pitching better, catching and throwing the ball better — those are the answers.

When you see it put that way, though, maybe that “thought per day” calendar isn’t such a bad idea.

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