Red Sox 4, Pirates 0

 

Relief! Not the pitching, but the comforting sensation that, yes, this team is capable of beating a last-place team, at least some of the time. 

Last night, Wilyer Abreu homered 432 feet into deep right center in the second inning. Then, after seven suspenseful innings of holding onto that 1-0 lead, Andruw Monasterio finally hit a two-RBI double in the ninth for some insurance and Jahmai Jones brought Monasterio home on a single.

Sonny Gray pitched like the professional that he is, going a full seven shutout innings  with six Ks and only five hits. Erik Miller took care of the Pirates in the eighth, three up and three down, and Aroldis Chapman even managed to make it through the ninth without any unnecessary drama, three up, three down, including two strikeouts. 

The biggest news from the game may be that Masataka Yoshida apparently hurt himself while running to second base on a double in the third. He was taken out of the game with a noticeable limp, and it was announced that he was dealing with left hamstring tightness. The Red Sox will likely put him on the IL and make some changes to their roster.

Meanwhile, the baseball gods appear to regret some of the misfortune they sent the Red Sox way, as they caused Tampa Bay to lose two straight to the last place Orioles, and the Yankees to lose three in a row, the last two to those pesky Jays. So Boston, although 4-6 in their last ten, is now 8½ back from the Rays and two back from New York. The Sox have a 5½-game cushion in the Wild Card standings with 39 games left to play.

The first of those games starts this afternoon when smokin' Patrick Sandoval (1-1, 3.30) takes the mound in the rubber game against Pittsburgh. Catcher Adley Rutschman (.071) is in the game as the DH in place of Yoshida. The Pirates will give reliever Lake Bachar, recently acquired from Miami, his first start as a Pirate - he started four games for the Marlins this season against 34 relief appearances, and has pitched in relief three times for Pittsburgh this season. 

In case you're interested, Boston has a long history of defeating pirates. Boston crews who were captured and forced into service by pirates often waited for an opportunity to rebel, occasionally managing to overpower their captors and sail the ships directly into Boston Harbor to face justice. Captured pirates were typically taken to sites like Bird Island for execution and their bodies placed on display as a warning to other mariners. In 1726, three hundred years ago, the minister Cotton Mather attempted to save the soul of the captured pirate William Fly, although Fly remained defiant right up to the gallows. In other words, Boston doesn't take any shit from pirates.