Results tagged ‘ Jeff Karstens ’
McCutchen, Pirates Get Hampt-on’d… Again
Well I just made a post last weekend about the Pirates getting beaten by Mike Hampton; I wasn’t expecting to have to make the same post a week later. Mike Hampton pitched another gem against the buccos tonight, going 7 innings surrendering only 1 earned run on 5 hits. Fantastic work from Hampton. This is just one of those things in baseball that you can’t explain, Hampton hasn’t pitched well against anybody but the Pirates this year, which makes no sense at all. Today, my favorite player Andrew McCutchen went 0-4. In his first at bat, he smoked a ball to third base but was robbed by a diving Geoff Blum. He was also robbed of a hit by the speedy Michael Bourn in the 6th innings. It was a softly hit liner into centerfield that would’ve dropped if Bourn didn’t get such a good jump on the ball. Any other centerfielder probably doesn’t reach that ball either way, but Bourn is just that quick. McCutchen very easily could’ve been 2-4 again today, but it just didn’t go his way. It really didn’t matter in the end, because no one on the team hit today and the pitching got roughed up for 9 runs. 4 of those came on a Carlos Lee grand slam that capped off a 7 run 6th inning for the Astros.
It was just another lackluster road performance for the Pirates. These guys look like a completely different team on the road than they do at home. Oh well, all the experts say to be a good team you have to play .500 ball on the road and then be well above that at home. The Pirates have played great at home this year, with a record of 15-11. Jeff Karstens had a nice start to the game, pitching pretty well in the first 5 innings, but then got into some trouble in the 6th and just couldn’t get the outs he needed. All-in-all, Karstens has been a pretty decent pitcher in that 5 spot.
Now, for our daily look in at the newest Atlanta Brave, Nate McLouth. Nate made his debut for the Braves tonight and really didn’t do anything to impress, granted it was against Yovani Gallardo.
How weird does that look? Nate went 0-4 today, but put the ball in play all 4 times. I’m really pulling for Nate to do well in Atlanta, I’d love to see him happy there, but at the same time you almost don’t want him to do well just to make people more happy with the trade. I don’t know, whatever happens happens and I guess it’s a win-win situation. I’m fine with anything happening as long as McCutchen produces up here in the majors. As long as the guy can get on base he’s going to be an impact player.
So there you have it, let’s hope for better luck tomorrow as the Pirates send ace Paul Maholm to the bump to face fellow ace Roy Oswalt. That should be a great game, and I’d expect the Pirates to hit the ball well, as they have been doing against the better pitchers in the league this year. LET’S GO BUCS!
Interleague… WOAHs!
That’s right the Pirates rallied back from a 3-1 deficit after the 7th inning to beat the White Sox 4-3 on Sunday afternoon. The bucs were aided by Eric Hinske and Jack Wilson’s first home runs of the year. Hinske’s came in the 8th to pull the bucs within one and Jack’s came in the 9th with 2 outs to tie the game. After that, Nyjer Morgan doubled down into the right field corner and Delwyn Young scored him with a slap single into left. Matt Capps then came on to strike out the side, notching his 9th save of the year. It’s good to see Capps blow through 3 batters that quickly and not cause any drama.
Surprisingly, for me atleast, Jeff Karstens pitched well. He went 5.1 innings and only surrendered 3 runs. He was 2 outs away from a quality start. He gave up 5 hits and more importantly struck out that many as well. Karstens has never been a strikeout pitcher but apparently he had good stuff yesterday. I say apparently because again, I didn’t get to watch the game. I’m going to catch some of tonight’s game but I have to leave after a couple innings to play some tennis. But I don’t think any of you care about that 
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The Pirates are now 20-24 and looking to draw even closer to the ever sought after .500 mark. It won’t be easy though, as they face the other team in Chicago. The Cubs. We send Paul Maholm to the mound tonight, who has been terrific in his last couple outings. An interesting point was brought up in one of my live game blogs a couple games ago, that Paul Maholm has an ERA under 2.00 when Jason Jamarillo catches him and an ERA over 5.00 when Robinson Diaz catches. So let’s hope Jamarillo is behind the dish tonight. I’m sure Russell has caught onto this trend and will adjust the lineup appropriately.
In other news, my blog’s stats count continues to plummet. I have a ******** 50 views over the last 2 days and most of those were me or people clicking on the picture of BJ Upton that references my blog on google images. Maybe I should stop pouting and start commenting. That always seems to get me more viewers, and commenters 
I love you all.
Cardinals (20-14) vs. Pirates (14-19)
Game 34: Cardinals at Pirates I’ll start it off with the pitching matchup and some other tidbits I got from pirates.com PIT: RHP Jeff Karstens (1-1, 5.19 ERA)
STL: RHP Mitchell Boggs (1-0, 3.50 ERA)
Tidbits
Karstens matched his season high with a six-inning outing his last time out. The right-hander’s efficiency was much better than it had been in his previous two starts, and he was able to not fall behind so often, which had been an issue in April. Karstens also kept the ball in the park, an achievement considering that he had given up five home runs in his first four starts. The right-hander hasn’t been dominant at all this season, but he has shown flashes of being a capable fifth starter in the rotation when he establishes his command early. Karstens has never faced the Cardinals.
Boggs will be making his fifth start this season. He allowed two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings Wednesday in a 5-2 win over the Pirates. The rookie right-hander has made a mighty big impression. After coming up from Triple-A Memphis on April 15 because former Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter went on the disabled list, Boggs made his first start against the Cubs on April 26, allowing one unearned run in 5 2/3 innings. He closed out the team’s 16-7 April by striking out a career-high nine batters over six innings in an April 30 no-decision against Washington in an outing manager Tony La Russa termed “outstanding.”
First baseman Adam LaRoche was hitting .321 (18-for-56) with seven doubles, three home runs, nine RBIs and 10 runs scored in his first 15 games this year at PNC Park. … The Pirates had homered in a season-high three straight games, before failing to go yard on Wednesday night. They have hit seven home runs in the past nine games. The Bucs have gone 8-6 in games they have homered in this season and 5-0 when they have hit more than one home run.
Mitch Boggs pitched against the Pirates on May 6th. He went 4.1 innings, gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits while walking 5 and striking out 4. He has been a lot better since that start, striking out 9 in a start against the Nationals. The Pirates should be patient with him tonight and hope he puts up a lot of walks again tonight. The forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms, so let’s hope it holds off and we can get this game in tonight. I will be live blogging with the guys over at Raise The Jolly Roger again tonight so be sure to click over here again during the game and check it out.
5-0′d
Well the Pirates got shut out for the third time in four games today, bringing our record back to 12-12. The offense just looks terrible lately. We’ve been shut out by Yovani Gallardo, Bronson Arroyo, and now Johnny Cueto. Gallardo is an ace, but Arroyo and Cueto are guys we should definitely get some runs off of. Not that it really matters when you send Jeff Karstens to the mound and he gives up 5 early runs and just takes us out of the game from the beginning. That never helps. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and we have Paul Maholm on the hill again against, wouldn’t you know, Yovani Gallardo again. That should be fun… or not. Let’s hope we can get lucky and get some runs! Let’s Go Bucs!
It’s Too Late For Yate…s
Well I think my streak of remotely clever blog titles is coming to end…
Frying The Fish… Again!
Well I decided to go to the game tonight, and I do not regret it one bit. It was a little bit chilly, but it stayed dry all night and they got the game in, and what a game it was. The Pirates defeated the Marlins for the 2nd time in a row by the score of 3-2. Jeff Karstens, to my amazement, pitched very well. He went 6 innings giving up 1 run walk surrendering only 3 hits. He walked 2 guys, which isn’t too bad. I don’t know where that came from, and I couldn’t see his pitches very well from my third baseline seat, but the stats looked great. I guess all I can do is wait my 5 days for him to pitch again and see what he does there… I don’t know this pitching staff is pleasantly surprising me, and I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of nervous to see if they will keep it up. Anyways, the big occurrences in tonight’s game aside from Jeff Karstens good start were…
- Freddy Sanchez had 3 hits including a solo home run which proved to be the winning run
- Jason Jamarillo had another big hit with an RBI double in the 2nd inning
- The bullpen combined for 3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits, not perfect but they did well enough to lock up the win. Yates pitched a quick 7th inning but then gave up a lead off BLAST to Cameron Maybin in the 8th which probably traveled over 400 feet. John Grabow then came in and got himself into a little jam with runners on first and second with Hanley Ramirez up and one out, but he got him to pop out then struck out Ross Gload on a 3-2 pitch that made the crowd (all 72 of us) go nuts. Matt Capps then came on to retire his first hitter on a beautiful play by the sure handed Jack Wilson, give up a single to Jeremy Hermida, and then get Cody Ross to ground into a game ending double play to bring the Pirates to 8-6
Just as expected
The Pirates lost their 2nd straight game to the Astros today thanks (again) to the extreme lack of offense. They looked good at the beginning of the game, scoring 3 runs early, but then they just went dead. Karstens only pitched 4 innings, he was incredibly wild and was leaving balls over the heart of the plate. He was absolutely terrible, but I fully expected that. In fact he probably did BETTER than I expected, and that is not saying much. Greg Brown stated that he was “probably just rusty” because he hasn’t pitched in awhile, but I mean c’mon, a major league pitcher should be able to throw strikes REGARDLESS of how long it’s been since they’ve pitched in a game. Karstens is terrible. That’s all I have to say.
11 Days Away
Alright we are now only 11 days away from opening night, when the Philadelphia Phillies begin their quest to defend their championship against the Atlanta Braves. As we approach the final week of spring training, the every day big league hitters are really starting to gear up and really start swinging the bats. I’m looking forward to looking around the league to see what happens in this last week of spring training, but I am even more looking forward to the end of spring training. It’s been going on forever, let’s get to the regular season already! Anyways, let’s get to some Pirates news.
The Pirates defeated the Atlanta Braves 5-2 last night. The big story here was Ross Ohlendorf. Ross pitched 6 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and striking out 3. His spring ERA is now down to 0.59, making him a lock for a spot in the starting rotation (at least he’s a lock in my book). He has looked terrific, being efficient and location all of his pitches extremely well. I’d love to see him in the 4th spot in the rotation, preceded by Maholm, Snell, and Duke, and followed by Karstens. The Pirates offense was provided by Craig Monroe, Nate McLouth, and Ryan Doumit. Let’s take a closer look at these three hitters, shall we??
- Craig Monroe
Craig Monroe has been stellar for his new team this spring. He’s hitting .302 with 12 RBI and 6 runs. Monroe is a lifetime .253 hitter, which is obviously not too good. He has had three 20+ home run seasons, but that’s in his past. Monroe is going to be nothing more than a pinch hitter and a situational player. I don’t know who will have the advantage between Monroe and Hinske. They will be two great players coming off the bench. Personally, I like Eric Hinske better, just because of his defense. Hinske, by the way, is a career .254 hitter. He had 24 homers in his first season, and hit 20 again last season. His defense is definitely superior to that of Monroe, but the way Monroe has looked this spring, I don’t see how you could look him over that quickly. It’s a good problem to have. If the Pirates do indeed record their 17th consecutive losing season, it won’t be the fault of the outfield. - Nate McLouth
Nate McLouth, pretty much the single reason to watch the Pirates last year, had success out of nowhere. No one expected him to do that. The only reason he even became an every day player was because of his awesome performance in spring training last year. He is mimicking that success again this spring. He’s hitting .325 with 3 home runs and 8 RBI. The average is good to see. McLouth hit .276 last year. Don’t expect a .300 season from McLouth. I’m a little weary of his power numbers as well, I don’t see him hitting 26 homers again this year. If he stays healthy all year, he’ll probably eclipse 20. I would also say he’s not going to repeat his RBI number again (94). Hitting in the 3 hole, it’s a guaranteed minimum 75, with potential to get to 100. I’m thinking somewhere in the mid to high 80′s. With hitters Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Sanchez hitting in front of him, I’m not seeing many runners to be on base for Nate (at least until Andrew McCutchen starts leading off for the Pirates). Nate could very well make his 2nd consecutive all-star appearance, just because the rest of the club is so mediocre. - Ryan Doumit
Ryan Doumit is one of the pillars that is holding the future together for the Pirates. He’s been showing good signs this spring as well. He is hitting .295 with 2 home runs and a .477 slugging percentage. Doumit is a rare catcher. He hit .318 last year, and it’s pretty rare to see a catcher hit that far above .300. His career average is .278. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Doumit’s average take a step backwards this year, but I definitely can see his power numbers rising. He hit a career high 15 homers last year. I expect Ryan to raise that number into the 20′s this year. This guy has great potential, and hitting in the clean up spot could warrant a legitimate chance to get to 100 RBI. Although his 69 ribs last year suggest otherwise. Maybe I’m expecting too much out of him, but I see Doumit as our best offensive player, so he’d better perform.
The Pirates play another night game tonight against the Rays at 7. Jeff Karstens will take the mound to try and boost his chances at making the rotation. We should be hearing word from manager John Russell soon about who the rotation will be. This is definitely a big start for Karstens. He hasn’t been great this spring, but has shown good signs and had some ups, enough to put him ahead of Virgil Vasquez, atleast. Personally, I’m rooting for Karstens. Let’s Go Bucs.
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