For those that get a thrill on offensive baseball, not much was to be found at Fenway Park. All the scoring happened well over three hours into the contest with the Red Sox mercifully ending things on a three-run jack by catcher Sandy Leon. Leon was listed at the bottom of the batting order, but certainly made the most out of his opportunity. Reliever Antonio Bastardo was drilled with the unfortunate loss for the pirates. He walked the other two runs that scored in and was only able to muster one out.
Pirates cobble up just five hits
Similar to other teams that start on the road this season, Pittsburgh has not been able to gel on offense just yet.
Five different players recorded single hits throughout the contest on Wednesday night and there was only one walk given to third baseman David Freese. The batting order did tally up 12 players left on base and 9 strikeouts.
Pirates starter Jameson Taillon had a tremendous outing with just five hits given up in seven innings. He also accounted for six of the team's 10 total strikeouts against Boston's batting order.
Red Sox survive pitching duel
By comparison, Boston's starting pitcher did just a shade better than Pittsburgh's. Chris Sale was on point all night giving up just three hits and fanning seven in seven innings of work. Five different relievers were called in to get work, but it was Joe Kelly who deserved the win by tossing 27 pitches in two innings and giving up just one hit.
While Leon was the savior of the game, he had the most offense of any player with three total hits on five at-bats -- a double was recorded in the successful hitting. First baseman Mitch Moreland struggled the most by striking out three times on five at-bats. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Pablo Sandoval were the other hitters that struck out multiple times.
Sandoval also already picked up his second error of the season for the Red Sox.
Pittsburgh will try to salvage the final game of the series on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 PM Eastern time at Fenway Park.
