Pittsburgh Pirates defeat Boston Red Sox 3-1 – MLB Update
The Pittsburgh Pirates successfully completed a 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday, June 24 at the PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Experiencing a capacity crowd, the PNC Park didn’t provide easy pickings for the batters as runs came in limited supply. Barring the first innings, the scoring largely belonged to the home side, which triumphed rather comprehensively in the end.
The Red Sox opened the scoring on top of the first innings helped by Jacoby Ellsbury’s run. That was about it for the Red Sox scoring. The Pirates levelled in the third innings as Ronny Cedeno scored. The Pirates held on to this run and added another in
the same inning off Michael McKenry to convert a one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
It was accurate pitching from both sides which prevailed on the night. The fourth and fifth innings were perfect displays of it. It was only in the sixth inning that Neil Walker added one more to the Pirates’ score and established a critical two-run lead.
The starting pitchers from both teams held on to their nerves well. Paul Maholm gave away only one-run in 5.1 innings at an impressive ERA of 3.21. His 103 pitches yielded 54 strikes and two strike-outs. He rightly earned his fourth win of the season, his
record improving to 4-8.
Jon Lester pitched for six innings for the Red Sox and threw just about perfectly apart from the two extra runs he leaked in the third inning, which in the end, proved to be the only thing separating both sides. He pitched at an ERA of 3.66, throwing 107
pitches and yielding 70 strikes. He reached a milestone, touching the 100 strike-outs mark for this season with five in this game. Had Lester won his team this game, he would have reached another milestone by completing ten wins this season.
Lester said, “I threw the ball pretty well, kept the ball down," Lester said. "Other than two hits tonight, nothing else was squared up.”
The game had almost certainly been decided when the starters handed over their task to the relief pitchers. Personal records were improved as four of the Pirates’ five relief pitchers held games with the fifth chipping in with a save. Joel Hanrahan’s save
was his 21st for the season, more than half of his total saves coming this season.
It was a third straight loss for Boston that otherwise have an impressive 44-31 record. They will be hoping to not let this build into a losing streak and come back hard.
The Pirates now have a 38-37 record and have a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Another win for them on Saturday can very well start a losing-streak for the Red Sox.
Tags: