Nationals 3, Pirates 2

The Pirates just got 3-hit by Odalis Perez, Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch. They drew no walks. Two of those hits were homers (by Ryan Doumit and Freddy Sanchez) but still, I'm not quite sure what to say about that. Zach Duke (mostly) kept runs off the board, but John Grabow gave up a run in the eighth to take the loss.

Obviously, the pitching wasn't the problem in this game, but Duke's lack of strikeouts -- and, more broadly, the Pirates' pitchers' lack of strikeouts -- is a major concern. The Pirates had two all night, one by Duke and one by Grabow. Only one of those strikeouts was of a position player. I wouldn't normally worry about it in a game like this, except these two-strikeout nights are becoming increasingly typical. It's like real-life pirates and their diets of salted fish and biscuits -- they might've been okay for a day or two, but eventually, they'd get scurvy. After tonight's game, the Pirates are (I think) dead last in the NL in strikeouts, despite six games against the Marlins, who lead all of baseball in offensive Ks. The Bucs also have allowed more runs than any team in the NL. That's not a coincidence.