Last night Ross Ohlendorf, tonight Jeff Karstens... lately it's seemed like the Pirates' starting pitchers can't go wrong. Actually, Karstens wasn't much more impressive than he usually is, giving up a ton of fly balls, but the Marlins still didn't hit him. The Bucs, meanwhile, pelted Anibal Sanchez early; their hitting slowed down eventually, but by then the damage was done. Freddy Sanchez had another good game, going 3-for-4 with a homer and a double, to raise his OPS to 1.054 for the year. Jason Jaramillo made a couple of nice defensive plays and looked positively Doumit-esque in smacking a long double off the right-field wall in the second.
The Marlins' announcers claimed that the Pirates had a good defense and a good bullpen. Until I see more evidence, I think they're wrong on both counts, and laughably wrong about the bullpen. But I can see where they're coming from with the defense. With Jaramillo in place of Doumit, Nyjer Morgan in left, and Andy LaRoche now having played well in the field for about a week, the Pirates really aren't a bad defensive unit for the first time in... what? A few years?
Also, I try to avoid enjoying these things too much, because they always come back to bite me in the end, but the Pirates are 8-6! Not bad.