Pirates Blow Out Giants, Take Two Of Three In Series

Just about everything went right today as the Pirates took their second of three games from the San Francisco Giants. Jeff Karstens struck out nine batters in six innings (!) while walking none, Andrew McCutchen went 1-for-1 with three walks, an HBP, and what must have been a 450-foot homer, and the Bucs took advantage of a wild starting pitcher (Jonathan Sanchez), which I was sure wasn't going to happen. (Leave it to the Pirates to let a guy like that strike out about 11 batters while only walking one, but that didn't wasn't what went down today. I thought they were a little impatient in the first, when Sanchez was struggling to throw strikes at all, but I can't argue with the overall results.)

The Bucs also managed three scoreless innings of relief, including an inning by Brad Lincoln in which he walked the first batter but got two strikeouts. And they reached base 19 times en route to a blowout. Nice game. The Pirates will take a day off tomorrow, but let's hope they continue to play well in Milwaukee. Just, you know, to confuse everyone.