Karstens injured early in Pirates' loss

This time he stayed in for a few more pitches and it put the Pittsburgh Pirates in a deep hole.

Corey Hart and Aramis Ramirez both went 3 for 4 with home runs, and Karstens left for the second consecutive time with an injury as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pirates 9-3 on Friday night.

The Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and had a runner on first with Corey Hart at the plate. Karstens threw a slider to the Brewers slugger and felt the same pain that caused him to leave his last start on Aug. 25.

A couple pitches later Hart hit his 25th home run to give Milwaukee a 4-0 lead and the Brewers never were seriously threatened after that.

"If I would've known this was going to happen, I definitely would not have tried to take the ball," Karstens said. "It is not something I try and do."

Manager Clint Hurdle said Karstens passed the tests given by the team's trainers and threw a routine bullpen session in between the starts.

"It wasn't really until the sequence to Hart that we noticed something and he confirmed that after he came out that he felt something grabbing a little bit again," Hurdle said. "It was only about a three-pitch sequence where he was trying to get the ball away, he wasn't able to finish."

After Hart's homer, Jonathan Lucroy singled. The Pirates trainers went to the mound, and after talking with Karstens for a few moments he walked to the dugout finished after only 20 pitches.