Hampton stifles Pirates in 4-1 win

By John Perrotto

Ross Ohlendorf and Mike Hampton both faced 23 batters Wednesday night at PNC Park in the Pirates’ 4-1 loss to the Houston Astros.

Ohlendorf, the Pirates’ right-hander, threw the first pitch for strikes to 14 of those batters. Hampton, the Astros’ left-hander, threw 17 first-pitch strikes.

That might not seem like a big difference but Pirates manager John Russell felt it was the deciding factor in his team dropping back to .500 at 4-4 and the Astros snapping their five-game losing streak.

“Hampton got ahead of the hitters all night and put our guys on the defensive,” Russell said. “Ross was the opposite. He kept falling behind and running a lot of 3-2 counts and it’s tough to pitch effectively that way.”

Ohlendorf used his two-seam fastball effectively in his first start of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals last Thursday as he allowed three runs in six-plus innings. However, the sinker abandoned him in his second start.

“I had no command of my fastball. I didn’t know where it was going,” Ohlendorf said. “I walked the first batter of the game on four pitches and that was a pretty good sign it was going to be a struggle.”

Astros leadoff man Michael Bourn, he of the measly .301 career on base percentage in 681 plate appearances going into Wednesday, did indeed