Winning in Interleague play

Jeff Karstens picked up another win (6-4) in a surprising season and the Pittsburgh Pirates took not only a 6-2 win over Toronto,but a winning interleague record to boot.
Brandon Wood homered for Pittsburgh (3) in a win that moved the Pirates to just two games out of first place in the NL Central.
Pittsburgh visits Washington tonight in the start of a four games in three days stop in the Nation's Capital.
Charlie Morton for the Pirates (7-4 3.77 ERA) against former Pirate Tom Gorzelanny (2-6 4.18 ERA).

Pirate Hooks

1) Jeff Karstens has been the surprise of the season,but despite a seven inning outing last night,it seems like he is truly a six inning/twice through the batting order pitcher.
Try to get him through more than that and the trouble begins...

2) Alex Presley homered and tripled in the Toronto series and showed signs of being a true leadoff hitter.
Far too short of a sample to get too excited about,but Presley sure has done something different since looking like just an organizational soldier type in his years with Hickory and Lynchburg.

3) Toronto looked very "Benny Hillish" on a Lyle Overbay popup that three guys missed,then overthrew second and had Overbay noticed could have scored as no one was covering home.
It would have been a one base sprint between Overbay and Blue Jays catch J.P. Arencibia for the run....

4) Former teammates Matt Diaz and Yunel Escobar had an interesting moment late in the game in which Escobar chose to punch a sliding Diaz in the gut with the ball rather than fire it to first for a likely double play.
Wonder what that was all about?

5) Dusty Brown and Aaron Thompson cleared waivers and returned to Indianapolis and Altoona.
Both were on the 40 man roster and needed to clear in order to return them to the minors.
Pittsburgh's 40 man slate is in flux with the rash of recent injury....

Photo by Brad White/Getty Images