Gray Dominates, Abreu's 420-Foot Blast Starts Boston Rout

Sonny Gray threw 7.0 innings of shutout ball — 6 hits, 0 earned runs, 7 strikeouts — and Boston never trailed in a 4-0 win over Pittsburgh on August 15. Wilyer Abreu set the tone with a 420-foot home run to right in the second inning, and the Red Sox made it hold up all night.

The story of the night was Gray, and it wasn't particularly close. He allowed 6 hits and 1 walk across 7.0 innings without surrendering a single earned run, punching out 7 batters in the process. Pittsburgh's Esmerlyn Valdez and Jake Mangum each went 2-for their respective at-bats and gave the Pirates some contact, but Gray consistently worked around any threat. Aroldis Chapman closed it out with a clean 9th — 1.0 inning, no hits, no walks, 2 strikeouts — making this a combined shutout that Pittsburgh's lineup had no answer for.

Abreu's second-inning shot — 420 feet to right — gave Boston a 1-0 lead that Gray would protect for seven innings. That one run looked like it might be enough, but the Red Sox blew the game open in the ninth against Pittsburgh's bullpen. Andruw Monasterio doubled to center, scoring Duran and Durbin to push the lead to 3-0, and that was the decisive blow: Pittsburgh's win probability cratered from 16% to 3% on that single swing. Jahmai Jones followed with a single to left, scoring Monasterio, and suddenly it was 4-0 with Chapman waiting in the wings. Three runs in the ninth off a bullpen that had held Boston scoreless since the second inning — that's a gut punch for Pittsburgh.

For Boston, this looks like a complete performance top to bottom. Abreu went 3-for-4 with the homer and an RBI. Monasterio drove in 2 despite going 1-for-4. Caleb Durbin scored a run. Jared Jones matched Boston pitch-for-pitch through 5.0 innings — 7 strikeouts of his own, 1 earned run — and Wilber Dotel threw 2.0 scoreless innings after him, but none of that mattered once the ninth inning unraveled. The Pirates appear to have gotten a quality start and still lost by four, which is the kind of night that stings long after the final out.