CHRISTOPHER PANSINO – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Pirates returned to a sense of normalcy yesterday as they lost a close game, 4-3, to the Milwaukee Brewers. However, the Pirates almost pulled off the late inning comeback in the same way that Milwaukee did the day before.
The Pirates suffered early on from a bad start for Jeff Karstens. Karstens pitched just five innings giving up five hits, four earned runs, and six walks. He allowed two game changing homeruns in the third inning as Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder hit back-to-back solo homeruns.
Karstens was erratic with his pitches tonight. When he was good he was shutting down batters left and right. But when he got frazzled he was down right terrible with his pitch control and placement.
And the offense did not do much to help Karstens out, not scoring a single run until the sixth inning when Brewers starter Dave Bush began to lose his touch allowing Garrett Jones to hit a solo homer over the right field wall.
The Pirates would score again in the seventh inning off of an Andrew McCutchen sacrifice fly and in the ninth off a Ryan Doumit solo homerun. However the Pirates would fall just one run short of pulling off the late inning comeback in the same manner in which the Brewers did just 24 hours prior.
In related news, rookie Pedro Alvarez went 2 for 4 tonight and is slowly bringing his batting average up to respectable level. With his two hits today Alvarez July total has already surpassed his June total (7) and still has another 16 games left in the All-Star shortened month.
The Pirates finish off the series Sunday before the All-Star break begins.
