The Boston Red Sox’s difficult road trip finally wrapped up on Sunday at PNC Park, ending with an 8-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates that was as frustrating as the rest of the journey. They dropped the series 1-2 against a Pittsburgh team that was below .500 coming into the day, which just makes the whole thing sting even more. This defeat pushed Boston’s record to 66-58, and honestly, the way they played, it felt decided long before the final out.
Patrick Sandoval’s Nightmare Start Buries Boston Early
Our guy Patrick Sandoval, the veteran left-hander, gave Boston absolutely no chance to settle in, man. He got rocked early and just never recovered. He surrendered a shocking seven earned runs over just four innings! Can you believe it? The Pirates jumped ahead fast with Bryan Reynolds hitting an RBI double and Brandon Lowe following up with a run-scoring single in the first. Then, they really poured it on in the third inning, putting up a massive five-run explosion. Reynolds and Lowe each delivered another RBI single, then former Red Sox prospect Nick Yorke drove in two more runs with a base hit, and Henry Davis capped it off with a sacrifice fly. Just like that, Pittsburgh was up 7-0.
Sandoval allowed nine hits and three walks, throwing 89 pitches over those four innings. He did strike out six, which is something, and didn’t give up a homer, but it felt like the Pirates were on base constantly. His ERA shot up to 4.76 after that uneven outing. He got 13 swinging strikes, sure, but those misses just did not matter when Pittsburgh kept finding ways to get traffic on the bases. The Pirates were an insane 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position, while Boston could only muster 1-for-7. That right there tells you the whole story of this game.
Rain Delay Kills Any Hope of a Comeback
The Red Sox finally showed a pulse in the fifth inning. Jarren Duran and Aaron Schunk got on base, and then Connor Wong absolutely crushed a 417-foot, three-run bomb to left-center field. That was Wong’s fourth homer of the season, and it cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 7-3. For a second, you could feel some hope, some belief that they could pull off their 29th comeback victory.
But man, the baseball gods had other plans. After the sixth inning finished up, the skies just opened. Heavy rain forced a tarp over the field at 3:35 p.m. local time, and play didn’t resume until 6:05 p.m. That two-and-a-half-hour delay? It killed every bit of momentum Wong’s homer had generated. Boston didn’t score again. Kirby Yates, Camilo Doval, and Mason Montgomery combined to shut the Red Sox out for the final three innings. Nick Yorke even added another RBI single for Pittsburgh in the seventh, just rubbing salt in the wound. The Red Sox ended the day with only five hits and a painful 13 strikeouts. Wong was responsible for two of those hits and all three runs. Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard combined to go 0-for-8 with five strikeouts at the top of the order, which is just brutal production. On a positive note, Rio Gomez actually came in after Sandoval’s exit and did a solid job, limiting the damage to just one run and two hits over four innings.
This loss against a sub-.500 team after a difficult road trip means they are still fighting for postseason positioning. They’ve gotta regroup, and fast.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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