PITTSBURGH — This is the Zach Duke the Pittsburgh Pirates and their fans were expecting.

It just took him a while to show up.

Duke, the 23-year-old left-hander tapped as the staff's ace during the off-season, entered Saturday night's start in San Diego having won three of his four September starts thus far.

He has posted an earned run average below 2.00 this month and has worked at least into the seventh inning in each of his five outings.

Duke's earned run average was 5.51 on July 24. It is 4.49 now.

"This is more like it,"Duke said after pitching eight scoreless innings a week ago against the New York Mets. "The difference is having control of your pitches.

"When you spot the ball where you want to, you can do a lot of things."

During Duke's 19 starts before the All-Star break, he walked 44 batters. He's only walked 18 in 13 starts after the break and has allowed just seven walks in his last eight starts.

After putting together an 8-2 record and 1.81 ERAin 14 starts late last season, Duke was being touted as a Cy Young Award candidate by some national preseason baseball publications this year.

He laughed off such a notion.

"I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff," he said. "At the same time, I've always had the confidence I could win consistently at this level.

"I couldn't get control of my body during my release point earlier in the year. I wasn't feeling comfortable and I'd fall behind the hitters right away."

That translated into first-inning blues for Duke, as he has an 8.71 ERAduring the opening frame this year. Opposing hitters are batting .338 against him in the first inning.

Duke's ERAwas over 6.00 in June and again in July. But not lately.

"This is the Zach Duke we've been waiting for," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "In his last few starts, you haven't seen a ball up in the zone. He's been keeping the ball down consistently and hitters keep pounding the ball into the ground."

Duke hasn't struck out more than seven batters in a game all year. He has exceeded 100 pitches in 15 of his 33 starts this season, setting a personal high by throwing 128 pitches — 86 for strikes — Sept. 17 against the Mets.

Entering Saturday's game, Duke has pitched 208Z\x innings this season, becoming the first Pirates pitcher to toss 200 innings in a year since Todd Ritchie threw 207 in 2001.

The last left-handed Pirate pitcher to log 200 innings in a season was Denny Neagle, who threw 209.2 in 1995.

"Look around baseball at guys who routinely throw more than 200 innings each season, and you'll find some pretty good names,"Duke said. "I want to be among them."