The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-1 Friday night, moving the Pirates one game above .500 in front of a large home crowd.
Paul Maholm allowed one run in the first inning (on an RBI groundout by Kevin Youkilis), but the Pirates otherwise did not allow any more runs, despite the Red Sox seeming to consistently have runners on base the entire game. The Bucs' pitching staff worked its way out of jams several times, including getting Adrian Gonzalez and Youkilis with two men on in the seventh and Marco Scutaro and David Ortiz with two men on in the eighth.
The Pirates, meanwhile, scored two runs after loading the bases to start the third, then tacked on another with Lyle Overbay's RBI single in the sixth.
The Pirates are now 38-37 and have begun their series against perhaps baseball's best team with a win. This was a huge game for the Bucs, who will have a rematch against the Red Sox on Saturday at 7:05 PM.