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Indians-Pirates Preview

Jun 19, 2010 - 4:20 AM By CHRIS ALTRUDA STATS Editor

Cleveland (25-40) at Pittsburgh (23-43), 7:05 p.m. EDT

American League opponents, National League opponents - right now, the Pittsburgh Pirates can't beat anyone.

The Pirates seek to end their winless ways in interleague play and avoid a 13th consecutive overall defeat Saturday as they play the Cleveland Indians.

Pittsburgh (23-44), which has the worst record in the NL, fell to 0-7 against AL teams this year following Friday's 4-3 defeat in the series opener. Its 12-game skid is its third-longest since 1900, trailing only a 13-game losing streak in 2006 and a 14-game slide that spanned the end of the 1954 season and start of 1955.

"Everybody's ... frustrated that this losing is going on," said Ryan Church, whose three-run double Friday brought the Pirates within 4-3 in the seventh. "It's one of those things when you go out and finally get that one and end this streak, then we can move on."

Rookie third baseman Pedro Alvarez continued his early struggles, going 0 for 4 in his third game. The highly-touted 23-year-old is 0 for 10 with five strikeouts since being called up for his major league debut Wednesday.

The Pirates will turn to Jeff Karstens (1-2, 4.50 ERA) to try and end their woes. The right-hander is winless in three starts since rejoining the rotation earlier this month but did pitch well Sunday at Detroit, not getting a decision after yielding two runs in seven innings of a 4-3 defeat.

Karstens is making his first start against the Indians after pitching 1 1-3 hitless innings of relief against them last year.

Cleveland (26-40) snapped a four-game losing streak but remains in last place in the AL Central. The Indians scored all their runs in the top of the seventh to snap a scoreless tie, much to the relief of manager Manny Acta.

"It's like boxing: If you don't hit the other guy, they're going to hit you," Acta told the Indians' official website. "So the thing that I'm thinking is, 'Man, if we don't score, they're going to score any minute, so we better get something going here.' "

Cleveland's own promising prospect - catcher Carlos Santana - went 2 for 2 with an RBI double and two walks and appears to be getting comfortable at the plate. He has consecutive multihit games and has hit safely in five of his seven games since being promoted from Triple-A Columbus on June 11.

The Indians, who improved to 4-6 versus the NL, hope their latest win will spark David Huff (2-8, 5.82) to do the same. The left-hander has already matched his loss total from a promising 2009 rookie year in which he went 11-8, and is 0-5 with a 7.29 ERA in seven road starts.

Huff lost his second straight start Sunday, getting reached for six runs in 5 2-3 innings of a 9-4 home loss to phenom Stephen Strasburg and Washington. Huff is winless with a 7.41 ERA in his last four starts.

The southpaw's lone start against the Pirates was a successful one. He scattered four hits and two walks in eight shutout innings before Cleveland survived for a 5-4 victory last June 23.