PHILADELPHIA —
Joe Blanton threw seven effective innings, Jimmy Rollins homered for the fourth time in five games and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-3 on Monday night.
Blanton (7-6) allowed three runs – two earned – and seven hits, striking out eight.
Jeff Karstens (0-2) gave up seven runs – six earned – and 11 hits in five innings in his first start since April 17.
Karstens was on the disabled list with hip and shoulder issues.
Jose Tabata hit a solo homer for the Pirates and also made two throwing errors in the first inning. The Pirates committed five errors in the game.
Helped by Pittsburgh’s sloppy defense, the Phillies jumped ahead with four runs in the first.
Rollins led off with a double, advanced on Juan Pierre’s sacrifice and scored on Hunter Pence’s looping single to right. Then it got ugly for the Pirates.
Pence hustled from first to third on Carlos Ruiz’s single to right. Ruiz advanced to second on the throw to third and Pence scored when third baseman Pedro Alvarez’s throw to second sailed into right for one error. Ruiz ended up on third when right fielder Tabata’s throw home got away for an error.
Ruiz scored on Shane Victorino’s single. Placido Polanco followed with a single to right. Victorino went to third and scored when Tabata’s throw bounced away from Alvarez for another error.
Tabata connected off Blanton in the third for his third homer. After Polanco’s RBI single for the Phillies in the bottom half, Clint Barmes hit a two-out RBI single in the fourth to cut it to 5-2.
The Phillies went ahead 7-2 in the fourth when Rollins blasted a 3-0 pitch off a billboard hanging from the second deck in right field for his eighth homer.
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Blanton, Rollins lead Phillies past error-prone Pirates
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