PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates this morning fired manager John Russell, whose teams equaled a franchise record by losing 299 games in three seasons.

Not since the mid-1950s have the Pirates been as bad as they were under Russell, who had records of 67-95 in 2008, 62-99 in 2009 and 57-105 this season. Only the 1952 Pirates, who went 42-112, lost more games in baseball's modern era than Russell's final team, which was the National League's worst in batting, pitching and defense.

This season's Pirates were bad from April to October.

They had a 12-game losing streak, four seven-game losing streaks and eight five-game losing streaks. They were 17-64 on the road, equaling the 1963 Mets for the most road losses during baseball's expansion era.