--RHP Jeff Karstens will be making his first start of the season Thursday after his scheduled start last Friday at Cincinnati was rained out. Karstens pitched a simulated game Monday in an effort to stay sharp. Pirates manager John Russell said Karstens would not be on a specific pitch count.
--1B Adam LaRoche is putting his career-long April woes in the rearview mirror, as he went 2-for-4 Wednesday with his third home run in four games. LaRoche is a lifetime .185 hitter in April, but he is hitting .267 through the first eight games this season. --LHP Zach Duke's four-hitter against Houston was the first shutout by a pitcher in a Pirates home opener since John Candelaria blanked the Chicago Cubs on seven hits in 1978. It was Duke's second career shutout, as he checked the Giants on five hits last Sept. 5 at San Francisco. His start Monday was the 100th of his career.
BY THE NUMBERS: .083 -- Combined batting average of the LaRoche brothers, Adam and Andy, through the season's first week. They were 3-for-36.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "One of the highlights of my career so far. I don't think I've ever seen one with my own eyes. And it was like, 'Was there nobody out?'" -- SS Jack Wilson, who caught a blooper to start a triple play April 12, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
