CHRISTOPHER PANSINO – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Pirates began a six game road trip yesterday. Their first stop brought them to San Diego where the Padre’s have one of the best pitching staffs in all the majors, including the best bullpen in every major statistical category. And for one of leagues worst offensive teams this was going to be a long night. But the big story going into last nights game was the matchup between unsupported pitchers. Both the Pirates and the Padres starting pitchers ranked in the top three in least run support for a starter.
Pirate’s Jeff Karstens (2-8) ranked third on that list with 2.88 runs of support per start. Karstens pitched extremely well, but gave up two runs in the second including a solo homer to start the inning. Karstens rebounded nicely after that, getting the next 12 batters out in order. He would finish by allowing just 2 runs on 3 hits in 6 innings of pitching.
His San Diego counterpart, Wade LeBlanc, ranks first on that list with just 2.31 runs of support per start. LaBlanc had the better performance tonight, striking out eight Pirates in his 5 2/3 innings pitched. He would allow only one run on five hits, but left the game in the sixth with the tying run on second base. His lone run allowed was an RBI single by Pedro Alvarez in the third inning.
The Pirates battled in the sixth and seventh innings to tie the ball game, but came up just short of scoring a run to tie the game.
The Pirates bullpen came up short as well allowing the Padre to extend the lead to 4-1 by the end of the eighth inning. A solo homer by Ryan Ludwick in the seventh and RBI single by Jerry Hairston Jr. in the eighth gave San Diego more than enough insurance to get the win. And whatever hope the Pirates had left was dashed when the major leagues best bullpen took over.
They allow the Pirates just two his in the final 3 inning. The bullpen added three more strikeouts; bring the Padres total for the night to 11 batters.
