PITTSBURGH -- The Red Sox, baseball’s hottest team in July by a lot, are now trying to emerge from the dreaded dog days of August.
It seemed like interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad might have created some momentum to do so by salvaging the finale of a four-game series in Toronto on Thursday with the combination of a Payton Tolle gem and a Caleb Durbin grand slam.
But the Sox couldn’t build on it on Friday night, taking an 8-4 defeat to the Pirates in the opener of a three-game series.
Immediately following a glittering 27-3 run -- the best 30-game sequence in the history of the franchise, Boston has lost six of its last seven.
Here were the moments that mattered the most at PNC Park.
1. Bennett cooling off
For a six-start stretch from June 17-July 17, rookie lefty Jake Bennett was tremendous, going 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA while walking four and striking out 30 over 38 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .152 off him.
It has been a different story in his last five outings, culminating Friday with Bennett’s first start of less than five innings in his 14 outings this season. Since July 22, Bennett is 2-3 with a 5.67 ERA, giving up 31 hits in 27 innings while walking eight and striking out 23.
On Friday night, Bennett was tagged for five hits and four runs over four innings, walking one and striking out six. Three of the runs scored in the fourth inning. Bennett threw 82 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.
2. Contreras thrown out the plate
The Red Sox didn’t generate much against Bubba Chandler early on, as the Pittsburgh righty sent down 12 of the first 13 batters he faced. Perhaps that’s why interim third-base coach Chad Epperson decided to be aggressive in trying to score Willson Contreras from first on a double off the wall in right-center by Wilyer Abreu in the top of the fourth.
Contreras, who candidly told reporters earlier this week he can’t run at full speed due to hamstring issues, was thrown out the plate as the Pirates executed the 8-6-2 play perfectly to end the inning. At the time, the Sox trailed just 1-0. The out at the plate became more glaring when the Bucs scored those three runs off Bennett in the bottom of the frame.
3. Moran mishap against Sox killer stings
The Red Sox grinded their way back into the ballgame in the top of the fifth, slicing a 4-0 lead to 4-2 on an RBI single by Andruw Monasterio and a sacrifice fly by Nick Sogard.
But the momentum went right back the other way in the bottom of the inning. Lefty reliever Jovani Morán was two strikes away from escaping traffic. But his 2-1 changeup hung over the middle of the plate and longtime Red Sox nemesis Brandon Lowe hammered a three-run homer to right. It was the 21st time Lowe has gone deep against Boston in 70 games.