Jeff Karstens and four relievers combined on a four hit shutout. The pitching has been top shelf the last week and a half and I’m not complaining.
Karstens allowed just two doubles and a single through six innings. Joel Hanrahan whiffed Albert Pujols with two on and two away in th 8th inning. Octavio Dotel pitched a scoreless 9th to wrap it up.
The Pirates offense was minimal but enough. THe Pirates hit three straight singles off of Jamie Garcia in the second with Ronny Cedeno striking the final blow to score the first run. In the 8th Lastings Milledge singled, stole second and scored on a two out single from Jason Jaramillo.
Garcia allowed just one run on seven hits in six innings. But he took the loss.
The Good
Beating St. Louis and inching closer to .500.
Karstens making a bid to stay in the rotation.
Milledge threw out Ryan Ludwick at home to end the sixth inning.
The Bad
More runs would be good.
The Rest
After posting an ERA of 7.63 through the first 19 games of the year, the Pirates came into the game with an ERA of 3.03 over the previous 10 games. Nice turnaround.
This was Karstens first win as a starter since 9/30/09. This was his first career win and second career appearance against St. Louis.
Garcia was making his third appearance and first start against the Pirates. He made his ML debut against the Buccos (two shutout innings) on 7/11/08.
Jaramillo had three hits for the third time in his career.
