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With a woeful offense, eight million injuries, and Brandon Wood in the DH spot, I had no high hopes for the Pirates' offense tonight, figuring that Jeff Karstens might have to hang zeroes for hours if the Bucs were to have a shot. Instead, the Bucs scored in the first (thanks to a leadoff triple by Alex Presley, who came home on a grounder by Andrew McCutchen) and fifth (led by a double by Josh Harrison, who scored on a sacrifice fly by Presley).
They then got a break leading off the sixth, as Lyle Overbay hit a catchable fly ball to shallow left that three Blue Jays ran after but none caught. Overbay ended up at third when the the Jays airmailed to throw to second, then came home on a double to deep right by Ronny Cedeno. Then Wood himself crushed a two-run homer.
The Jays managed to score two in the fifth on solo homers by J.P. Arencibia and Yunel Escobar, but Jeff Karstens was otherwise effective, doing his usual thing, throwing one strike after another - 64 of his 88 pitches went for strikes. Chris Resop, Tony Watson and Jose Veras preserved his lead.
There was also a weird incident where Matt Diaz slid to break up a double play, and Escobar, a former teammate of his in Atlanta, pretty much punched him in the stomach with the ball. This was these two teams' last game against one another, though, so it doesn't look like this will develop into an ongoing story. The Pirates didn't retaliate, unless you consider winning a form of retaliation. The Bucs leave Canada with an 8-7 interleague record after winning their last three series. That's a big improvement over the usual, eh?