Boston Red Sox at Pittsburgh Pirates

Patrick Sandoval (1-1, 4.76) took the ball for Boston looking to salvage the series finale, while Pittsburgh countered with Lake Bachar (1-2, 3.80) in what amounted to a bullpen game at PNC Park — manager Don Kelly pushed Paul Skenes' turn back to Wednesday to give him extra rest after a recent velocity dip.

Boston's lineup took a hit hours before first pitch. Masataka Yoshida strained his left hamstring running out a double in Saturday's win and landed on the 10-day IL, and reliever Justin Slaten went down too, thinning a bullpen that would need length behind Sandoval.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
BOS	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	3	5	1
PIT	2	0	5	0	0	0	1	0	—	8	11	0

None of it mattered much once the Pirates got rolling. Pittsburgh jumped out early, blew the game open in the third and coasted the rest of the way at PNC Park, where it was 75 degrees and cloudy for the 1:35 PM ET matinee.

The Pirates scored 2 in the first and then broke it open with 5 in the third, adding an insurance run in the seventh. They out-hit Boston 11-5 and played clean defense while the Red Sox committed an error, and Bachar's makeshift start held up just fine behind that kind of support.

The finale flips the script from Saturday, when Sonny Gray and a late offense shut Pittsburgh out 4-0. Sunday's 8-3 result means the Pirates take the series 2 games to 1, sending Boston home from PNC Park with a split week and some fresh questions about the bench and bullpen depth.

Sources