
Jeff Karstens did it all on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, throwing seven scoreless innings and going 1-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI in a 4-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The DERP was strong in this one, as DERP Vader took his game face to the mound to pick up his fifth win on the season. He scattered seven hits while he punched out four and held the fearsome Brewers lineup (featuring Norichika Aoki and some idiot Canadian dicknise who wrote a song about wearing his sunglasses at night) in check.
He also flashed his skills with the bat, as he slapped poked squibbed flicked doinked cued stroked a single up the middle to score Michael McKenry in the fifth. As evidenced in the linked video and the photo above, it was a beautiful thing: let the front shoulder fly, eliminate weight transfer by having the butt leak, and get full extension before the bat head is through the zone so you end up hitting it off the end of the bat. Textbook.
Unfortunately, Karstens was pulled in the top of the 8th inning due to some stiffness in his groin area, which is fine because we’ve all gotten a NRB (No-Reason-Boner) every now and again. Baseball is exciting. So is being on a field in front of 37,000 screaming fans. I think we can all be thankful that it didn’t happen as he was freeballing in a pair of sweatpants or basketball shorts.
Jeff Karstens has a face, you guys. And it’s multi-talented.
This is the twentieth installment in our ongoing tribute to him. And his face.