Good Bounce Helps Pittsburgh Pirates Sweep Boston Red Sox At PNC Park
By Larry Snyder
In a game that had fans glued to their seats, the Pittsburgh Pirates completed a sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 3-2 victory Thursday night at PNC Park to win four in a row for the seventh time this season.
At 82-70, the Jolly Roger crew remain 2 1/2 games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals (85-68) in the National League Central and are 3 1/2 up on the Milwaukee Brewers (79-74) for the second Wild Card spot in the National League. The Cards beat the Brew Crew 3-2 on Thursday in St. Louis.
Clint Hurdle gave the ball to Mark Melancon in the ninth and Pittsburgh got a break with runners at the corners and nobody out. Will Middlebrooks sent a ball down the third-base line, but it struck Jemile Weeks, who was leading off third, forcing the umpires to call him out. Then it was time for Melancon to buckle down and record the final two outs without issue to pick up his 30th save in 34 opportunities this season.
In picking up his 10th win of the season, Pirates starter Gerrit Cole gave up two earned runs on six hits over seven-plus innings of work. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound right-hander struck out seven, and walked none on 98 pitches.
While Cole did pitch to two batters in the eighth, Tony Watson was the first out of the bullpen, and the lefty gave up a one-out sacrifice fly to center off the bat of Xander Bogaerts that allowed Christian Vazquez to score and make it 3-2.
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The near-capacity crowd came out of their seats in the fifth when Starling Marte blasted his 13th home run of the season on a fly ball to left off righty Brandon Workman, giving the Pirates a 3-1 lead.
In the visitor’s dugout, the Red Sox’ Workman saw his record drop to 1-10 on the season as he gave up three runs, two of them earned, over five innings. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound right-hander struck out six and walked three on 95 pitches.
The Bucs scored in the home half of the first when Ike Davis walked with the bases loaded, which allowed Travis Snider to score. The second run came in the bottom of the fourth, when Chris Stewart sent a line drive single to center that scored Davis and made it 2-1.
Mookie Betts stroked a ground ball single to center that brought Vazquez home in the top of the third for Boston that knotted up the game 1-1.
The Pirates open a three-game weekend series at PNC Park with NL Central rival Milwaukee on Friday night. The first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
The third-place Brewers will send right-hander Yovani Gallardo (8-10, 3.59 ERA) to the mound while the Bucs will go with Jeff Locke (7-5, 3.66 ERA).
The 26-year-old Locke will be making his 20th start on Friday, and his 11th start at home. The 6-foot, 185-pound left-hander has posted a 4-2 record at PNC Park this season and has won five of his last seven decisions. The game will be broadcast by ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.