Pirates manager: If I sat everyone who's struggling, we couldn't field a team

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle has watched his team's offense struggle to get going through the first month of the season. 

After finishing in the league's top 10 last year in almost every offensive category, the Pirates enter Tuesday sitting in the bottom third of the league. 

Aside from the loss of catcher Russell Martin to free agency, the Pirates returned almost entirely the same lineup from a season ago, making their slow start a bit of a surprise. 

"Martin had a big year last year, and obviously his numbers played into the total team numbers a lot," Hurdle told Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "However, you still take him out, we have the same group of guys here collectively. If I was going to sit everybody struggling right now, we wouldn't be able to put enough (guys on the field)."

Two of the biggest contributors to the Pirates' offensive struggles can be found at the heart of the order, as Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen have been ice cold. 

A four-time All-Star, McCutchen finished April with a .194 average. However, he's confident he and his team are going to snap out of their funk, and is pleased that the Pirates sit only one game under .500 despite their disappointing offense. 

"We know what we're capable of doing," McCutchen said. "I think we're still doing pretty good despite our offense right now, and we just know once our offense gets going, then everybody will be asking us, 'What happened? What's different?' Nothing. It's just the game of baseball."

Losers of three straight in which they managed to score just four runs, the Pirates open up a three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday.