Pirates Improve to 6-2

After being tied at 2-2 after two innings, the Pirates' pitching (Jose Cubero and David Porta) and the Pirates' defense tightened up to shut the Red Sox down on a hot (the temperature at game's end was 100°) Sunday morning.


Neither team seemed to have been fully awake at the 10:00 am start.  The visiting Pirates struck first.  Jose reached base on an error, stole second and went to third on a passed ball.  Juan Ortiz drove Jose in with a ground out to second.

 The Red Sox opened the bottom of the first with a bad hop single.  After a stolen base and an error, with no outs and a runner on third, the Pirates retired the next two batters on a hard ground ball to Brent Bronte at third and a strike out.  But an error allowed an unearned run for a 1-1 tie after one.

The Pirates added one in the second but should have had more.  John Denney walked and Brent Bronte and Bill Keeling reached on errors with John scoring on the second error.  After a walk to Leo Brown loaded the bases, still with no outs, a strike out and a double play left the score at 2-1.

In the second, the Red Sox put a runner on third with a walk, a wild pitch and a ground out short to first (David Stierle to John Denny) sandwiched around a strike out.  The runner scored on a balk for a 2-2 tie.

Neither team scored in the third, the Pirates wasting a Jose single and stolen base and the Red Sox a two out walk.

Both teams went three up three down in the fourth.

In the top of the fifth, the Pirates scored two without the benefit of a base hit.  After an out, Brent walked and David Porta, Brian Hooper and Bobby Blair were all hit by pitches in front of Leo who walked.  Bobby and Leo picked up RBIs.  But with the bases loaded, a strike out and a fly out left the bases loaded for the second time in the game.  The Red Sox again went three up three down and the score after five was 4-2.

The Pirates made in 7-2 in the sixth.Scotty Irish reached on an error and went to third on John's double.  Both of them scored when Brent reached on a two base error and advanced to third on a wild pitch, scoring on Leo's ground out.  The Red Sox stranded a lead off single.

The Pirates struck again in the seventh after two outs.  Chris Gregory singled and stole second.  After Juan walked and was replaced at first by Jose, Chris stole third and Jose second.  Scotty drove both in with a single up the middle for a 9-2 Pirates' lead.

In the bottom, a one out walk and a single had runners on the corners.  But the next (and last) batter hit a ground ball to Bill, who tagged the runner trying to go to second and threw to Dave Porta at first to end the game.

The Red Sox had: 3 hits (2 off Jose and 1 off Dave; 6 walks (5 by Jose in the first three innings and 1 by Dave); 1 earned run off Jose; 5 strike outs by Jose; and reached base once on an error.  The Pirates had: 3 hits; 1 double; 6 walks; 7 earned runs; 4 strike outs; were hit by pitches 3 times; and reached base by error four times.