Stop me, stop me, stop me, stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. Apologies to the Smiths. The offense was bad. The pitching wasn’t strong enough. Bucs lose another one that wasn’t close.
The Pirates collected only five hits and one run heading into the 9th inning. They trailed 9-1 before putting a two-spot on the board. LA’s hitters failed better against Jeff Karstens and the Pirates bullpen. Andre Ethier belted two homers – including a two run shot in the fifth to break the game open – and drove in four and Blake DeWitt had four hits and knocked in three runs.
That was more than enough offense for Hiroki Kuroda. He allowed those five hits and that one run through 8 innings. Karstens was done after five innings. His totals include 11 hits and six runs given up.
The Good
Garrett Jones was back after a digestive issue. He collected two hits. Andy LaRoche also had a pair of knocks.
Andrew McCutchen recorded an outfield assist and Jason Jaramillo threw out Matt Kemp on an attempted steal.
The Bad
In addition to the obvious, McCutchen left the game with an injury to his leg. He was trying to beat out an infield grounder and stepped on Kuroda who was covering first. He stayed in the game for a couple of innings before leaving with what the team is calling a mildly sprained ankle. He is day-to-day.
That’s plenty of bad news.
The Rest
Kuroda is now 3-1 against the Pirates in his career.
This was Blake DeWitt’s first career four hit game.
It took Ethier 56 games to reach nine homers in 2009. He reached 26 RBI in his 28th game in 2009. He reached both marks today in the Dodgers 25th game of 2010. This was his 10th career multi-homer game. Only 17 players have more multi-homers since he first came up in 2006.
Kemp has been caught stealing an ML worst six times in 2010.
John Russell had Karstens hit 9th, marking the first time all year that a pitcher didn’t bat 8th. It didn’t help.
