Game 114: Pirates 2 D'Backs 0

It's amazing how quickly a baseball game can grab your attention. Around 3:40 I put the radio broadcast on my computer and went about work, periodically checking back in. After about three innings, the fact that Jeff Karstens hadn't put any one on base became mildly interesting. I mean, three perfect innings is nothing, but everything has to start somewhere, right? But Karstens kept going, getting a home run from Freddy Sanchez in the fourth and cruising through six. At that point, I decided to split from work and get on a bus to try and catch the end at home (all told, the bus ride + walk to my apartment takes about a half hour). As I came down my street, my phone buzzed twice and I knew that I had two text messages telling me that Karstens had given up a hit. I refused to look at them, just in case they were uninformed non-Pirate fans accidentally trying to jinx things. I got back for the ninth inning and saw that Chris Young had ended the no-hit bid with a two-out double in the eighth.

Whatever you think is going to happen to Karstens when teams really get a chance to see him, you can't quibble with the guy starting his Pirate career off with 15 shutout innings, including 7 and 2/3 perfect innings against Randy Johnson. The D'Backs are a very poor hitting team, but Karstens worked very efficiently today, not walking a batter until he was over the 100 pitch mark in the ninth inning. With Bay and Nady getting tons of press while they're raking on the biggest stage in baseball, it's good to have a reminder that we got a pretty nice haul in return.