The Pirates are in the midst of a 1-6 slide following a 4-3 loss against the Cardinals on Monday night at PNC Park. They've now fallen three games back in the National League wild card race and as Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, a big shakeup may have just gone down in the starting rotation.

This is NOT fully confirmed, but I just heard from a long-time, highly reliable source that the Pirates have released starter Erik Bedard. Bedard has given up 16 runs in his past three starts, and the team might be looking to get Kevin Correia back in the rotation. But I didn't see anything like this coming. And I'll repeat: The Pirates themselves haven't confirmed this, and it's a little late to be calling anyone, so I'm giving what I have here, nothing more.

For the season, Bedard is 7-14 with a 5.01 ERA and 118 strikeouts against 56 walks. He started off the season strong, posting a 2.48 ERA in April and a 3.91 ERA in May. He's failed to post an ERA lower than 5.91 in any of the last three months, a pretty clear sign of why the Bucs might be looking to take him off the roster. Bedard signed with Pittsburgh for one year and $4.5 million over the offseason.

UPDATE 1:41 a.m.: Michael Sanserino of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says he now has confirmation of the release as well.

For the latest on the Bucs, be sure to stay tuned to SB Nation Pittsburgh and check out Bucs Dugout, SB Nation's Pittsburgh Pirates blog.