Fresh off a Paul Skenes victory in the series opener, the Pittsburgh Pirates will look to make it two wins in a row in Boston and eight victories in their last 10 games when they face the playoff-chasing Red Sox again on Saturday afternoon.
The Pirates are seven games deep in the basement of the National League Central, but their bats woke up late in a 4-2 win on Friday. Seven of their 10 hits came after Boston MLB-debuting star Payton Tolle exited through 5 1/3 innings.
Former Red Sox player Tommy Pham hit a game-tying, two-run double in the sixth inning before Andrew McCutchen highlighted his 3-for-3 performance with a deciding RBI double in the next at-bat.
Pham has been a major key of late for Pittsburgh, hitting .300 with a 1.017 OPS and 10 RBIs in his last 12 games. He hit just .170 over the first 28 games.
“People wanted him out, and look what he’s been able to do the second half of the season,” McCutchen said of Pham. “That’s why baseball’s a crazy game. For him to be able to turn his season around like he’s done, it just goes to show you just no excuses, you’ve gotta work.”
Meanwhile, it was McCutchen’s second game with multiple extra-base hits in the last seven. His effort Friday supported Skenes, who overcame a career high-tying seven hits in six innings but gave up only two runs (one earned) and struck out six.
Now, in the second game of a three-game series, Pittsburgh right-hander Johan Oviedo (1-0, 3.60 ERA) is set to make his fourth start since returning from a 2024 season-long absence due to Tommy John surgery.
After lasting just one inning in his Aug. 4 season debut, Oviedo has back-to-back solid starts. He struck out five across four innings of one-run ball Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Pirates lost 7-6.
“Looked really sharp, you know, and stuff was good,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said of that outing. “Fastball was electric, and kept them off balance with the offspeed, and went to the curveball really effectively there in the middle of the outing.”
Oviedo, 27, pitched 4 2/3 innings in his only career start against the Red Sox on April 3, 2023, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits — including three homers.
The Red Sox entered Friday off a four-game sweep in Baltimore but have still won seven of their last nine games. However, they have lost four straight contests at home.
Boston was out-hit 10-9 on Friday, but Roman Anthony hit a solo home run and Romy Gonzalez went 3-for-4.
“I think we put good at-bats,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We had three innings to try to get to the bullpen. It just didn’t work out.”
Right-hander Dustin May (7-10, 4.79 ERA) enters his first career start against Pittsburgh looking to stop back-to-back losses and three in four outings with Boston.
In his first taste of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry last Sunday in the Bronx, May allowed three home runs among five hits and five runs in 4 1/3 innings.
May’s start not only comes a day after Tolle’s impressive debut, but also after the Red Sox parted ways with pitcher Walker Buehler before the game.
A week ago, Buehler was demoted from his starting spot and made one relief appearance before his release. Tolle and May are holding down the end of the rotation behind the consistent trio of Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito.
“We’re playing important games and want to give ourselves every opportunity to win as many of those as possible, and we think that Payton and Dustin give us the best chance to do that right now,” said Craig Breslow, Boston’s chief baseball officer.
–Field Level Media
