The Pirates suffered an embarrassing 5-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park Thursday afternoon. The Giants' starter was Ryan Vogelsong, making his first start in the big leagues since 2004 with the Pirates, when, as you'll no doubt recall, he wasn't any good at all.
Naturally, Vogelsong racked up eight strikeouts Thursday. The Pirates had 12 strikeouts overall, including two by the still-clueless Pedro Alvarez. (Alvarez now has 29 strikeouts and six walks on the year.)
But that wasn't all. Jeff Karstens actually pitched pretty well, but allowed three unearned runs in the third thanks to a dropped popup by Lyle Overbay, a dubious decision by Overbay to throw to third on a bunt rather than getting the runner at first, a stolen base by the thinner but still slow Pablo Sandoval, and a throwing error on the play by Ryan Doumit. After that, the Pirates could do nothing against the Giants' bullpen. It was a lackluster effort by the Pirates' offense, and an even worse effort by the Bucs' defense. The Pirates didn't deserve to win, and, well, they didn't.