Karstens flirts with tossing perfect game

Jeff Karstens is showing the Pittsburgh Pirates he’s worth the player of the week they traded to get him.
The recently-acquired right-hander set down his first 23 batters and finished with a two-hitter yesterday afternoon in a 2-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since being traded to the Pirates, he’s thrown 15 scoreless innings against two first-place teams.
This masterpiece followed his debut—a 3-0 victory Friday over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“We knew what he was capable of doing,” Pirates’ manager John Russell said. “We had very good reports on him.
“The biggest thing is he throws strikes. That’s a great asset for any pitcher,” he added.
Karstens (2-0) came to Pittsburgh in a six-player trade July 26 that sent last week’s player of the week, Xavier Nady, and reliever Damaso Marte to the N.Y. Yankees.
“It’s been a big change,” Karstens said. “I was pitching well in triple-A and I felt like I wasn’t going to go anywhere.”
The 25-year-old Karstens outpitched Randy Johnson, who tossed baseball’s most recent perfect game in May, 2004. Karstens also got his first two major-league hits off the five-time Cy Young Award winner and scored on Doug Mientkiewicz’s eighth-inning double.
Karstens was in complete command with his four-pitch repertoire until Chris Young’s liner for a clean double down the left-field line in the eighth inning.
He walked the lead-off batter in the ninth, then made a nice stab of pinch-hitter Tony Clark’s comebacker to start a double play.
After a single by Stephen Drew, Mientkiewicz smothered Orlando Hudson’s grounder to first before tossing to Karstens for the final out.
The Diamondbacks grudgingly gave the pitcher credit. Young called it “a very weird” near no-hitter.
“We had a lot of deep fly-outs,” he noted. “I mean, we were on him. But it was his day. That’s the only way I can explain it.
“He definitely gave us some pitches to hit.”
Elsewhere in the NL, Chicago dumped Houston 11-4, Milwaukee doubled Cincinnati 6-3, San Francisco nipped Atlanta 3-2, Philadelphia blanked Florida 5-0, San Diego beat N.Y. 4-2, and St. Louis downed L.A. 9-6.
Washington at Colorado was postponed.