Sonny Gray threw seven scoreless innings and Wilyer Abreu’s second-inning solo home run put the Boston Red Sox on course for a 4-0 shutout of the host Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.
Gray (15-3) set a career-high for wins and leads the American League in that category. Gray struck out seven and walked one on 86 pitches to lead the Red Sox to their second win in three games following a five-game losing streak.
Abreu’s home run with one out in the second off Pirates starter Jared Jones (2-5) was one of three hits in the game. It tarnished a mostly-solid start for Jones, who struck out seven, walked two and gave up just the one run on four hits over five innings.
Abreu rapped his second of two doubles off Pittsburgh reliever Luke Weaver to lead off the ninth. Abreu was then thrown out at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Caleb Durbin. But Jarren Duran blooped a single to left field and Andruw Monasterio smacked a changeup from Weaver into the left center field gap to drive in two insurance runs.
Two batters later, Jahmai Jones drove in Monasterio with a single.
The Pirates’ dimming playoff hopes took another hit with the loss as they failed to put together three consecutive wins following a stretch of seven losses in eight games.
Pittsburgh’s best chance against Gray came in the fifth when it loaded the bases on singles by Jake Mangum, Rafael Flores Jr. and a walk to Spencer Horwitz. Gray recovered by striking out Brandon Lowe to end the inning.
Mangum and Esmerlyn Valdez each had two hits to lead the Pirates, who finished with six hits. All were singles, though, and Pittsburgh left five runners on base.
The verdict was the Red Sox’s 13th shutout this season and the 13th time the Pirates have been shut out.
The Red Sox had two strong chances to add to their early lead against Jones, but left runners on second and third in both the third and fourth innings. They failed on three chances with less than two outs.
Gray is tied with Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sanchez for the major league lead in wins.