Bordow: Unknown’s near-perfect game is trouble for D-Backs

It’s one thing to have your bats turned into kindling by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff.

But Jeff Karstens?

Are you kidding me?

Pirates' Karstens almost perfect vs. D-Backs

In case you’re wondering who Karstens is — and aren’t we all? — an introduction:

He’s a 25-year-old right-hander who was obtained by the Pittsburgh Pirates just before the trading deadline.

He has 11 major league starts.

His most notable moment prior to Wednesday was having his right leg broken by a Julio Lugo line drive last season.

In other words, Karstens is about the last pitcher you’d expect to flirt with a perfect game.

But that’s exactly what he did, throwing 7 2/3 innings of perfection before closing out a 2-0 victory over the Diamondbacks.

Here’s the summation of Arizona’s offense:

Chris Young’s double to left field to break up the perfect game.

Stephen Drew’s single in the ninth inning.

Augie Ojeda’s ninth-inning walk.

That’s it.

No Arizona runner reached third base. Only four hitters had three-ball counts. The Diamondbacks would have had as much success bringing toothpicks up to the plate.

Strangely, though, there weren’t a lot of compliments being thrown Karstens’ way in the quiet Arizona clubhouse.

Conor Jackson: “It definitely wasn’t (San Diego’s) Jake Peavy on the mound. We weren’t going back to the dugouts scratching our heads.”

Chris Snyder: “It was just his day.”

Young: “It was more of us no-hitting ourselves.”

There is a modicum of truth in those statements. Four of the Diamondbacks’ outs reached the warning track. Two more were wicked line drives hit right at Pirates.

“We hit the ball hard,” Jackson said. “You can’t ask for more than that.”

Actually, we can.

Why didn’t a single Diamondbacks hitter attempt to bunt for a hit? Shouldn’t it have been fairly obvious by the zeroes on the scoreboard that a different approach was needed?

“We don’t have a lot of base-hit bunt guys,” manager Bob Melvin said.

What about Young and Stephen Drew? Or Orlando Hudson and Alex Romero?

Seems to me the Diamondbacks were so convinced they’d get to Karstens they let their stubbornness get the best of them.

While we’re questioning tactics, why didn’t Melvin send Ojeda with Tony Clark up in the ninth inning?

Clark had hit into three double plays in just 32 at-bats since returning to Arizona. But Ojeda stayed put at both 2-2 and a full count and, sure enough, Clark rolled into a double play.

Melvin obviously was wary of Clark striking out — he has 42 Ks in just 121 at-bats — and Ojeda being thrown out. But at that point, isn’t it better to be aggressive?

The Diamondbacks can try to paint Wednesday's game as an aberration. But the truth is, their offense again has gone into cold storage.

Arizona has scored three runs or less in six of its last seven games. The Diamondbacks put up 13 runs on Monday but that was against Pittsburgh’s Yoslan Herrera, who was immediately demoted to Double-A ball.

Arizona was fortunate to win three of those games thanks to brilliant outings by Randy Johnson, Dan Haren and Brandon Webb, but you have to wonder whether the D-Backs are on the precipice of another prolonged hitting slump.

It’s a shame.

A few more runs Wednesday and Johnson would be in the final countdown to 300 wins.