Pirates Turn to Karstens to Snap Drought

By now you’ve heard the Pittsburgh Pirates offense has been searching for answers and talking to themselves after a tough first five games.   The stats are horrendous offensively.  The Bucs only have scored nine runs– the lowest in baseball.   The Pirates have the lowest walk total in baseball.   The Bucs simply aren’t getting hits, or runners on base.

Tonight all the negative should change. The Pirates will have Jeff Karstens on the mound and the ZombieNation has been strong since earning a spot in the rotation.  The Pirates lead MLB with a team ERA of 2.05.   The offense will face a familiar face, although the Dodgers are a new uniform to Chris Capuano.

The left hander was in Milwaukee for a while and the Pirates own the biggest batting average in the NL off him. They beat him up rather well back in the day.

Of course those great Pirates teams have all been broken up now, so looking at who could face Capuano tonight shows some nice possibilities within the moniker of super-duper small sample size.

Pedro Alvarez has two hits in five at bats, Andrew McCutchen has four hitts in six at bats. Nate McLouth and Jose Tabata have each taken Capuano deep.

Likewise the Dodgers have hit well of Pirates right hander Jeff Karstens.  The middle of the order has been the absolute strength for L.A. this season.   Only Ethier has been able to string a few at-bats against Karstens to give us a taste.  It’s not great work, but let’s trust the Zombie is an older, smarter pitcher now.