Kovacevic: Duke pitches shutout in 7-0 home opener, Astros fall to 1-6

Duke raised his record to 2-0 by striking out five and walking two while throwing 78 of 119 pitches for strikes.

It marked just the third victory in the Pirates’ past 16 home openers, the first since 2004, and it was the first complete-game shutout since John Candelaria’s on April 7, 1978.

“I’m on a really good note right now, right where I’ve been all spring, and I’m hoping to just stay that way,” Duke said. “My arm feels great.”

This may be the only time you’ll ever strike out Lance Berkman three times in a game, so enjoy it now!

“Obviously, Zach’s not going to pitch a shutout every game,” manager John Russell said. “But the consistency that he’s shown us in the latter part of last season, the spring and now these two starts, you can see a lot of confidence there.”

Every player in the starting lineup, including Duke, had at least one hit as part of the Pirates’ total of 14.

Yes, Nyjer Morgan AND Brandon Moss had hits.  Duke had a double.  As you might guess from that stat, Andy LaRoche was not in the starting lineup.

In other news, the Astros pitching staff is a catastrophe.  The Pirates had 19 baserunners.  The only pitchers out of six who didn’t embarrass themselves were Russ Ortiz and Chris Sampson, pitching long-ish relief.  Weren’t they supposed to be rotation candidates?