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| (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan), |
Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates earned their eighteenth road game of the year at a ballpark where they have not been able to buy wins in the last 11 years (24-57 since 2000). By beating the Houston Astros 1-0, in a game that featured six Pirates pitchers, the Pirates find themselves in territory they have not seen this late in the season since 1999.
That season the team went 78-83 and finished third in the division. If you can believe it Brian Giles batted .315, slugged 39 homers, and drove in 115 runs. He wasn’t the only one to drive in 100 runs either! First baseman Kevin Young contributed with his second consecutive offensively productive year in ’99, hitting 26 home runs and driving in 106 runs. Todd Ritchie was a 15-game winner with an ERA a shade under 3.50.
So maybe the modern day version of the Pirates team isn’t built like it used to be. But was that working either? They were still losing 90 or more games a season.
Forward to last night with Jeff Karstens taking the mound for the Bucs.
Karstens has been stellar in his last ten starts. In those outings he’s given up two earned runs or less nine times and three earned runs or less in all of those outings. Despite not being the flashiest guy on the staff, Karstens does a tremendous job of keeping hitters off balance.
Said Manager Clint Hurdle after Karstens’ performance, “Jeff was very, very effective tonight. Talk about stepping on and off the gas.” Hurdle there referring to Karstens ability to execute his array of pitches in any given count, mixing it up and making it hard on Houston hitters.
In fact, the Pirates pitchers were so effective that they ended Hunter Pence’s 23-game hitting streak, which was the longest current streak in the majors. No matter, Andrew McCutchen extended his Pirate season long streak to 13 games with a 1-3 performance.
That aside, the Pirates need to start mustering up more runs if they hope to stay afloat in the murky NL Central Division. With a lineup now built around speed and less around the long ball, manufacturing runs and good starting pitching is the name of the game. With the excellent efforts of the staff the Pirates have received so far this season, I don’t see why they can’t improve on that 78-83 record of the ’99 club.
The Pirates will turn to their young star Charlie Morton tonight, looking to improve on his 6-3 record and 3.08 ERA.
Written by Shane McFarland
Follow me on Twitter @mcfarlands412 or Email me at stmcfarland5@gmail.com
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