The Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Lloyd McClendon prior to the start of their contest with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday. "This is a difficult day for the Pirates since Lloyd has been a loyal member of our organization for 15 years," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "However, this is a very important time for our franchise and from a baseball standpoint we believe we needed to make a change." Bench coach Pete Mackanin will guide the Pirates for the rest of the season. Pittsburgh was just 336-446 in McClendon's four-plus years as manager and never had a winning record. One more loss by the Pirates will guarantee them 13 consecutive losing campaigns, three shy of the major league record. At 55-81 this season, the Pirates are tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in the National League. McClendon was named the 35th manager in team history on October 23, 2000. After the team struggled to a 62-100 record in his first year at the helm, the Pirates rebounded in 2002 with a 10-game improvement. Pittsburgh once again increased its win total in 2003 with 75, but was just 72-89 a year ago. Pittsburgh's last winning season came in 1992 when it won the NL East, but the Pirates have also been hampered by limited spending on players since then and have let several of their top players move on to other teams.