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PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates hope that a few good candidates will step forward to solidify their rotation in the final weeks of the season.

Now if they could only could borrow a line from Steve Miller and his band, which conducted a post-game concert at PNC Park on Friday night.

You know, just say "Abracadabra, I want to reach out and grab ya."

Jeff Karstens took another turn, this time against the San Diego Padres, but it was more of the same in a 9-2 setback. The sixth sellout crowd of the season witnessed it.

Like the old-time rockers, whose performance was cut short because of rain and lightnng in the area, the Pirates packed it in early. The visitors scored five fimes in the eighth inning to break open a competitive game.

Jose Tabata and Delwyn Young cracked home runs off Mat Latos (11-4), the Padres starter and winner, but both came with nobody on base. Tabata also had a single and double in five trips to the plate.

Karstens (2-6) pitched well enough to win on some nights -- four runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks in six innings -- but this wasn't one of them. He failed to protect a pair of one-run leads.

"What can I say? They gave me a 2-1 lead, and I let it slip away," Karstens said.

"He threw the ball pretty well," manager John Russell said."He kept them off balance. His slider worked really well for him. The one inning got away from it."

Karstens remained winless since June 19, when he beat the Cleveland Indians at PNC Park.

"I feel that I'm so close to get over that hump, but there are a few things that have gotten in my way that are just part of baseball," he said.

As was the case on Friday night, a misplay by a Pirates rookie on the first batter paved the way to a barrage of runs.

Jerry Hairston Jr. hit a hard ground ball that ate up Pedro Alvarez at third base for an error. After Chris Denorfia walked, Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley delivered RBI singles to give their team a 3-2 lead.

"The ball that got past Pedro took a little bit of a funny hop," Russell said. "If he makes that play, (the inning) might have been different. The ball had topspin. It wasn't hit really hard. He went down and the ball came up a little bit. He tried a drop step, but the ball got there pretty quickly. It wasn't an easy play."

Before the inning was over, Nick Hundley hit a sacrifice fly to finish the rally and Karstens for the night.

"It's unfortunate. It's part of baseball," Karstens said of the error. "I just have to do a better job to minimize the damage at that point. I kind of got myself into trouble with Denorfia. He tried to bunt and I tried to do too much rather than take the out. Then I could have pitched around Gonzalez to set up the double play."

Tabata gave his team a 1-0 lead in the third inning, which he led off with an opposite-field blast into the right field bleachers.

Karstens cruised into the fifth inning with a three-hitter, but the Padres required only three batters to tie the score. Will Venable singled, stole second base and scored on an Everth Cabrera base hit.

In the bottom of the inning, Young homered into the right-field bleachers to give his team a 2-1 advantage.

Once again, the lead was a brief one, as the first four Padres batters reached base in the sixth inning.

The Padres tacked five runs off reliever Sean Gallagher in the eighth inning, as another lead-off error proved to be costly.

First baseman Garrett Jones couldn't handle a ground ball off the bat of Headley to open the inning. A single and a walk loaded the bases, then Gallagher balked home a run.

After a 42-minute rain delay, reliever D.J. Carrasco entered the game. The Padres scored four more runs, two on a double by pinch-hitter Oscar Salazar with the bases loaded.

Well-worn relievers Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek were unavailable.

"Sean had pitched pretty well and we were down by two (runs)," Russell said. "We can't pitch those guys every single day. We have to rely on other guys in the bullpen. It's a long season. At this time of the year, we have got to be sure that we keep guys as fresh as we can."

Asked whether the starters had to pitch deeper into games more often as well, Russell didn't waste any words.

"Yes," he said.