Wood'nt it be nice?

Brandon Wood rapped out three hits including a two run homer (4) on a three RBI day to back winning pitcher Jeff Karstens (7-4) one run stint over seven innings to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-1 win over visiting Houston.
The Pirates remain just one game behind first place St.Louis in the NL Central.
The Pirates will attempt the sweep of the series tonight against the Astros with Charlie Morton (7-4 3.63 ERA) versus Houston's Bud Norris (4-6 3.51 ERA) at 7:05.


Pirate Hooks

1) In a season of many surprises,Jeff Karstens continuing to produce is the largest in my opinion.
Karstens has parlayed average stuff at best into an excellent season thus far.
Karstens and his slow and slower pitches have developed into almost a righthanded Jamie Moyer type...

2) Brandon Wood was only playing because the Pirates wanted to take it cautious with Josh Harrison after his issues on Sunday,but it paid off on this day.
Three hits and three RBI to go with the long homer showed the occasional glimpse on why so many were high on Wood as a prospect with the Angels.

3) The Buccos did have some luck against Wandy Rodriguez though as other than Wood's homer,not a lot of balls were struck hard.
Some of the hits were even off broken bats bringing the old phrase to mind,"better to lucky than good".

4) The win was number 45 on the season.
Last year win 45 came on September 3rd-quite a difference...

5) Three hits for Matt Diaz and two for Lyle Overbay.
I have been hard on both of these players,but both have improved recently,
Could this run for both players be enough to keep them in the lineup shuffle that will take place when Jose Tabata,Pedro Alvarez etc return?

6) The Pirates sent Cesar Valdez to Florida for a player to be named later.
Valdez had been pitching at Indianapolis after being obtained for Zack Duke from the Arizona Diamondbacks..

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