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PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates clubhouse was not a good place to be late Sunday afternoon.

After the San Diego Padres completed a three-game sweep at PNC Park, 6-3, veteran reliever Brendan Donnelly held court for the final time in front of his locker, where teammates D.J. Carrasco, Joel Hanrahan, Javier Lopez, Evan Meek and Jeff Karstens had pulled up chairs in front of him.

At another corner moments earlier, rookie Brad Lincoln tried to explain his latest ineffective start, which would be his last in the major leagues for awhile.

Donnelly was designated for assignment for purposes of his release, while Lincoln was sent to Triple A Indianapolis to work on his delivery. Their roster spots will be filled on Tuesday.

"I don't deserve to be here right now," Lincoln said. "I need to go (to the minor leagues) to work on things and get back to where I was before I got here. That's probably the best move for me. To continue to struggle is not good for me and it's not good for the team."

In 6 1/3 innings, Lincoln allowed six runs on eight hits and two walks. Five of the runs scored in the third inning, when he allowed five hits. They included an Adrian Gonzalez home run with a runner on base.

"He'll be back here," manager John Russell assured. "He has too good of stuff. The first time around was a learning experience for him. He should come back with a different outlook. He'll know what will be expected of him."

In nine starts, Lincoln compiled a 1-4 record and 6.57 earned run average. He allowed 64 hits and nine home runs in 50 2/3 innings.

Lincoln experienced a noticeable decline in velocity at times, which he said was the result of his emphasis to throw strikes. He reported no health issues.

"My head isn't in the right place," said Lincoln, 25, who at least raised his batting average to .400 with two hits. "I think too much out there. I need to go someplace else and take care of it."

"We still feel there are positive strides to being made, but we're not where we need to be with him," general manager Neal Huntington said. "We feel that it's best to get him back in the environment where he was border-line dominant and get him back to the things that made him successful."

The front office attempted to trade the 39-year-old Donnelly for several days, but there were no takers for him.

Nonetheless, Huntington considered the decision to be a "difficult" one.

"He gave us a veteran presence and helped those guys in the clubhouse," Huntington said. "But it was the move that we felt was the right thing to do."

"They gave me an opportunity to work with some young guys, and I enjoyed it," Donnelly said. "I wish that I could have done more, but I do believe that I achieved my goal here. Anytime I play with a new team, my goal is to do more good than bad, and I know that I did that here."

In 38 games, Donnelly compiled a 3-1 record and 5.58 earned run average.

According to Donnelly, he would have made good on a $150,000 incentive clause after his 40th appearance. The bonus was worth $175,000 for every five games thereafter. His base salary was $1.35 million this season.

On Friday night, Donnelly walked the only three batters that he faced in what turned out to be his final appearance with the team.

"Before I went down in Milwaukee (on April 27), I was perfect in the eighth-inning role," he said. "I tried to be a hero for them and pulled my oblique (muscle). When I came off the disabled list, Hanrahan was great (in his role), which was awesome, but I lost my job to an injury. That's not supposed to happen in sports, but it did."

"I went to (Russell) and said, 'What's my new role?' He told me and I said, 'That's fine. I'll all good. Just know that I stink in blowout games. That's not my thing.' If you break down games, that's pretty much where my runs (allowed) where. In the games that mattered, I was pretty good."

Donnelly was the last of the would-be replacement players in the 1995 season, which a players' strike threatened to cancel.

The decision was an unpopular one among the players. Donnelly was the senior team member and an acknowledged leader in the clubhouse.

"This caught me totally off guard," Carrasco said. "I didn't see it at all. Brendan was big part of the bullpen and the team. He showed the young guys how to do it. I hope that he'll catch on with somebody and have a chance to play in the postseason. We'll miss him."

Said Meek, "Brendan was the only leader on the team that put everybody on his shoulders. He was the only one that would speak up and address an issue and not care about the consequences. I know that he helped a lot of other guys, but he taught me more than anyone could ever teach me here."

Meanwhile, the Padres pitchers dominated the series, in which they allowed only eight runs. Starter Wade LeBlanc (5-8) and three relievers combined to retire 14 of the final 15 batters in the series finale.

Andrew McCutchen had one hit in four-bats in his return from a sprained right shoulder, which sidelined him for six games.

A 10-game homestand that started with a loud bang finished in stone-cold silence. The team dropped the last four games and six overall.

"Disappointing, record-wise, yes," Russell said. "But our guys showed that they can score some runs and swing the bats. We'll take that as a positive out of this. Some guys grew a little bit on this homestand. That's the most important thing for the young players now continue to grow and believe that they have made strides."