PITTSBURGH — The table was set for the Braves Sunday to reach .500 for the first time this season.

They had reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale on the mound. They were facing a Pittsburgh Pirates starter with a hefty ERA.

Win, even the record, take the series against a careening team and enjoy Mother’s Day.

Hopefully, the last objective was accomplished, because the other three were not. Against a team with the third-worst record in baseball, the Braves fell short to the Pirates, losing 4-3 in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the ninth at PNC Park.

“We are a lot better team than what we’ve shown,” manager Brian Snitker said.

The Braves’ fifth attempt to reach .500, the third in the past five games, was as unsuccessful as the first four. Remarkably, the Braves have lost each by one run and have failed to score more than three runs in any of the games.

And in the process, the Braves lost a series to a team that had played so poorly it had gotten its manager fired Thursday.

The Braves are 19-21. Pittsburgh is 14-27.

Said Sale, “I wouldn’t exactly hit the panic button yet, but we’ve got to win series.”

The Braves were stymied at the plate through the weekend, hitting .194 (20-for-103) with one home run. A Braves team with four Silver Slugger winners in the lineup could not do enough to support a pitching staff that limited Pittsburgh to 10 runs in three games.

“It’s definitely been frustrating and we can’t keep asking the pitchers to (have) two-run, three-run ballgames,” said one of those Silver Slugger winners, third baseman Austin Riley. “At some point, we’ve got to open up this thing offensively. It’s frustrating. Guys are working hard. You’re seeing them work. Just not getting the results and it’s frustrating.”

With a quarter of the season in the books, the Braves are the picture of an average offense.

Through Saturday’s games, they ranked 13th in home runs, 21st in runs scored, 21st in batting average, 17th in on-base percentage, 18th in strikeout percentage and 14th in hard-hit percentage.

Snitker admitted to being exasperated by the offense not surfacing. The production shortage does come with the caveat that the team is waiting for the return of 2023 National League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. from an ACL tear that ended his 2024 season after 49 games.

He continues to rehabilitate the injury and is expected to be back in late May or early June.

“We’ll turn this thing around,” Snitker said. “We’re going to hit. We’re not going to not hit for the next five months or four months.”

Sunday, as has become custom, the Braves saved their offense for late. Down 3-0 in the top of the eighth, they scored all three of their runs on a two-out, bases-loaded double by pinch-hitter Sean Murphy.

“We’ve got to start scoring more runs,” Snitker said. “I mean, we can’t wait until the eighth inning and potentially blow up our bullpen again.”

Pittsburgh finished off the Braves in the bottom of the ninth. Snitker called on Raisel Iglesias, who had been given a two-day rest for the first two games of the series after giving up his sixth home run of the season on Thursday.

Iglesias had some tough luck. He gave up two singles (91 and 60 miles per hour), followed by a groundout and an intentional walk to load the bases.

Pirates catcher Joey Bart, from Buford High and Georgia Tech, capped a stupendous weekend by hitting a 74-mph grounder to shortstop Nick Allen, whose throw to the plate was late and allowed the winning run to score.

With that, the Braves’ sixth consecutive one-run game was over. They’re 3-3 in those games.

“It wasn’t like they were beating (Iglesias) all over the ballpark,” Snitker said.

The Braves’ difficulties at the plate continued. Carmen Mlodzinski came into the game with a 6.16 ERA in seven starts.

He had been particularly ineffective in his second and third times through the lineup, allowing teams to hit .424 in their second trips through the order and .333 in the third.

But the Braves failed to score against Mlodzinski and managed four hits off him before he left the game with one out to go in the top of the sixth.

By that point, the Pirates led 3-0, scoring all of the runs in the bottom of the fifth off Sale. They used three singles, a double steal, a passed ball, a walk and a sacrifice fly. Sale went 5 2/3 innings with the three runs allowed, two earned.

“I thought he threw the ball OK,” Snitker said. “Holy cow, it’s O.K. to win 5-3, too.”

Strider reports on bullpen session

Braves ace Spencer Strider met with media prior to Sunday’s game for an update on his hamstring strain suffered April 21 after his first start of the season. Strider, who underwent season-ending elbow surgery in April 2024, threw his second bullpen session since the hamstring injury. Sunday, he said he felt great, giving credit to a platelet-poor plasma injection after his first bullpen session.

“Obviously, we’re in the middle of a 17-game stretch, so I’m sure that’s going to play a factor in what pitch count they feel is safe and that kind of stuff, in terms of where the bullpen’s at and where the pitching staff’s at,” Strider said. “I feel good about my chances to give us a chance to win if I’m out there, but it’s not up to me.”

Strider said there would be a discussion upon the team’s return to Atlanta following Sunday’s game to determine the team’s course, e