Condensed Game: Boston Red Sox vs Pittsburgh Pirates – August 29, 2025

Condensed Game: Boston Red Sox vs Pittsburgh Pirates – August 29, 2025

[Music] The socks come rolling back to Fenway on the strength of a seven and one road trip and tonight send a flamethrowing prospect against one of the best in baseball sai young candidate Paul Skins. It’s the first of three with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Great to have you with us on this Friday. Dave O’Brien alongside my partner Will Middlebrooks and also Jamai Webster. In a couple of moments, we’ll be celebrating the 30-year anniversary of Tom Karen at Nessen, but also talking about Payton Tolley making his major league debut. And the Red Sox, well, he caught their attention in the minor leagues. Well, a big league debut is one thing, right? But a debut here at Fenway Park in the middle of a playoff race and taking on one of, if not the best pitcher in all of baseball and Paul Ske just doesn’t get much better than that. But this guy absolutely blazed his way through the minors over the last calendar year and you can see why. Look, Zra is right about three. Look at the strike zone domination. 133 strikeouts to just 23 walks over those 91 and two/3 innings. And so much of this guy’s success was because of his fastball. It’s a special one. A 142 batting average against 36% with OB. Buckle up. This going to be a fun one. One very exciting night here at Fenway Park. And tonight we honor longtime broadcaster Tom Karen. a special TC night, celebrating 30 years with the network in a way only he could pull it off by doing it all. Fans since the turn of the millennium, Boston has been the city of champions. The players on our hometown teams have changed over the years, and so too have the television broadcasters and analysts who have covered our favorite stars, except for one. For 30 years, there has been one constant presence in the booth, in the studio, and on the sidelines. From Fenway to the Garden, from baseball to hockey, both pro and college, our honore tonight has brought us as fans closer to the games we love by sharing the same passion we all have. A native of Maine who attended college in Vermont, he has been an on-air presence with Nessen for three decades. But he’s also become part of the New England community. He hosts and participates in our annual run to home base to benefit service men and women and he has a deep connection to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute as the co-chair of the Jimmy Fund. Here to deliver a ceremonial first pitch this evening to mark his 30th anniversary at Nessen is the man we all know simply as TC. Please welcome to the mound Tom Karen. [Applause] Catching his pitch will be Red Sox manager Alex Kora. OKTC, how about a pitch? Thank you TC for your three decades at Nessen. We look forward to many more years. Second round draft pick in 2024 out of TCU all the way to Fenway Park. And Ti’s 02 swing and him has to strike him out. 98 m anph. Welcome to the major leagues. Paytoni. You know what I love about that OB? He shook to fast ball. He wanted the heat. Connor Wong put down something off speed and he said, “No, no, no. I’m going to the gas and just blowing doors off.” Look at that. Good luck. Four pitches, four strikes, and another strike at 98. Fouled away by Nick Gonzalez. Looking for his second big league strike out here in the first inning. Swing and a miss. Struck him out. Pulled him on the slider. That is some impressive start. One, two, three. They go. They got to skins after. Oh, see now they Well, we needed to make We should see that one. Strike gun number three for Ti. The best is that basically blended in from you a delivery to toy. That’s TV right there. Fans in this ballpark. Swinging in a miss. That one by him at 97. He’s already picked up four strikeouts in the first couple of innings. And two away. and and just to be able to connect with those fans. You know, I’m from Maine and when I was young, Nessen really was our ticket to New England sports, right? You didn’t get the nightly Boston sports cast that you get inside of 128. So, I’ve always remembered that you’re not just talking to Boston, you’re talking to Bangor and Burlington, Vermont and Block Island. Yeah. And and it matters because they’re all hardcore Red Sox fan two. That one ate him alive. A fast ball 98 inside. Some good defense and a big fast ball. Nothing. Nothing to right. Oh, good luck. One, two. Oh, meager wave and a miss at 97 to strike him out. He fans Reynolds for the second time and he throws like 99. There’s that, too. 2-2 popped up right center. Long run in for Canario again. This time he catches it and the runners get back to first and second. He had dropped one earlier and two down. [Music] Yeah, this off the end of the bat you’re thinking, “Oh man, here can he not get to this one? Does he clank it again? Does it fall?” Well, somehow you end up bases loaded, but he got to that one up by saying that that’s the thing to me about Nessa, and I mentioned this before, OB, we have so many talented people on and off the air. I I’m getting the glory tonight and I appreciate it more than you know. But there are so many men and women behind the scenes who work around us, the crew here at the ballpark every night and they don’t get enough credit. So I just want to make sure we take a moment and tip our cap to everybody who has made these 30 years possible. Thanks to everybody here at Nessen for keeping me around. Thanks everyone at home for keeping me on your screens. And just one more thing, I am back tomorrow by the way. Okay, I will do the pregame show. All right. And two and two. Here it comes. He got him. Nasty. He struck him out. He has two more KS in the inning. One to nothing socks. Uh that that was awesome to see. I like to see him out there relaxed, happy, having fun. And I like to see that way out of here. Roman Anthony with a home run. Number eight. That was on queue, huh? The Red Sox leading two to nothing. Let the kids play. Wow. [Applause] We’re going to see that a few times in the years to come. Red Sox two and the Pirates nothing [Applause] as Alex Bregman gets in. He is over two tonight. He’s also great. That’s right. He’s We said run support Obie from his dad Chad. You certainly like to see that. How much are you guys going to really appreciate this after it’s all done? It it is only appreciated after it’s done. I I don’t do very well during it. That is for sure. I Yeah, I I usually hide myself behind everything. And uh we we’ll celebrate and be uh we’ll be really happy once it’s over with. So Chad and Charlie, thank you guys very much. And I got to say, OB, Chad was back in the grand stand, standing room only, watching his son pitches. He says he tries to hide himself while his son’s pitching. So, I’m glad he gave us a moment here. Instead of fly ball, well hit center field. Son racing back. It’s over his head. That’s going to skip off the wall. One run in. Gonzalez scores. Here comes Reynolds. He’s going to score. No throw to the plate. Just like that, this game is tied. Fam with a two-run double and it’s a two- two game. Charged those both to to tough too cuz can’t get a win now and he threw the ball so well. You fall behind with two sliders to Fam and then it just forces you over the plate with the fast ball. That one middle in. Luckily it was hit to the deepest part of the field. Tie ball game. Now here’s McCutchen who has doubled and walked. He lines that one into left center field. That’s going to bring another run in. Fam in to score. That goes all the way to the wall and Weisser immediately gives up backto back doubles and gives away the lead. McCutchen with his 50th run. Batted in his second double tonight. That changed quick, didn’t it? It’s the big leagues for you. 95 middle down in the zone, but Kutchen gets to that ball. He’s always been a good low ball hitter. Goes down and gets that. Smokes in the gap. So suddenly Red Sox looking up at the Pirates. Here’s McCutchen who has doubled and walked. He lines that one into left center field. That’s going to bring another run in. Fam in to score. That goes all the way to the wall. And Weisser immediately gives up backto back doubles and gives away the lead. McCutchen with his 50th run batted in. His second double tonight. [Music] That changed quick, didn’t it? It’s the big leagues for you. 95 middle end down in the zone, but Kutchen gets to that ball. He’s always been a good low ball hitter. He goes down and gets that. Smokes in the gap. So, suddenly Red Sox looking up at the Pirates. A bunt runner trying to score. Here’s the shovel to the plate and he is out at home. They got Simon. Let’s see if they challenge the play at home plate. They will. Oh, I think he really hurt his left arm. The field is out. Pittsburgh is challenged. You know, I I initially thought he got that arm in there. Wong caught the ball and then went down with his knees to try to block the plate, but I think he went into the arm, maybe hurt that shoulder of Simon. He’s in a lot of pain right now. This late in the game, they are going to use that challenge regardless. Safety squeeze. So, he’s got to, as a base runner, you have to make sure it’s down. Pick does a really good job of getting to it and getting it with the bare hand to Wong. Now you’ll watch him drop that knee right there on the arm and you start to worry about that shoulder joint when that much weight is coming down on top of it when it is extended like that. Oh, that hurts. Can’t tell if that arm if that hand gets on the plate or not. This will be a good look right here. Throw comes in. Wong goes down. Was a glove on them or because the fingers definitely went onto the plate right there. I couldn’t tell if the glove was on them or not. So, the play under review. Called out at home by the home plate dump Danagna. He looks safe to me. Hope I’m wrong. After review, the runner hand touched home plate before the tag. The call on the field is overturned to safe and Pittsburgh retains their challenge. So Simon does score. He paid a price for it. Has to leave the game. Take another look. His pinky and ring finger right there. You see the glove still in the air, not on him. So on a reversal, a run for the Pirates. They lead it 42. Wilson coming on. So guard with the lead off first and popped him up at first base. Horwitz coming in and at foul ground makes the catch and the Pittsburgh Pirates take game number one. 4-2 the final. So the Red Sox four-game win streak is history. Well Peyton Tolley was very good in his big league debut and you the offense seven hits two runs off of Paul SK and you’re thinking okay this is going to be enough. This bullpin has been really good this year. They just weren’t tonight. Gave it up. Pirates out hitting the Socks 11-9. Your final score 42.

Highlights from the Boston Red Sox 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 29, 2025.