If I told you in February that Brandon Wood and Jeff Karstens were going to lead a baseball team into second place on July 5th, you would’ve guessed that it was either the Indianapolis Indians or the Salt Lake Bees, right? Instead, the duo lead the Pirates to their third straight win, bringing their record to 45-41 and most likely vaulting them past the Brewers (down 7-2 to Milwaukee as I type this) and into second place in the NL Central.
Karstens flew through seven innings tonight on just 92 pitches, changing speeds and throwing a ton of strikes (72 and no walks). He also laid down a suicide squeeze bunt in the sixth inning. Shutting down the Astros’ lineup isn’t exactly a huge accomplishment, but hey, no one’s counting style points right now. Karstens only allowed seven hits and besides Carlos Lee’s double and Clint Barmes’s homer (solo shot, of course), they were scattered harmless through the first eight innings. Jose Veras and Chris Resop closed the door from there.
Brandon Wood gave Karstens all the offense he’d need with a two-run homer in the second, then added an RBI single in the fourth. Karstens’ squeeze helped the Pirates add two more in the sixth after Mike McKenry’s sac fly gave him an RBI in his third straight game after starting his career off with 21 straight RBIless games. Neil Walker and Lyle Overbay both had two hits (against a lefty!) and scored twice and Matt Diaz had three hits, though they didn’t result in any runs.
I don’t know what else to say. The bats have kick-started the last few days at this team is incredibly fun to watch right now, even if all they’re doing is taking care of business against baseball’s worst team. This is perhaps because instead of being baseball’s worst team, they’re currently in second place.
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