Red Sox 6, Pirates 7: Brandon Workman struggles in second outing

Brandon Workman's second outing of the spring did not go as well as the first, and despite a furious rally in the late innings, the B-team Red Sox found themselves last-minute 6-7 losers to the Pirates.

Really, calling Workman's second start bad might be a bit of an oversimplification. For the most part, he was actually quite good. He struck out four batters in 2.1 innings of work, and two of the five hits he allowed were ground balls from Starling Marte, one of which never even left the infield. The problem was that the two of the bad at bats he suffered were very bad, with Pedro Alvarez and Russell Martin taking him deep in the first and third innings respectively, scoring Marte both times.

As such, the Red Sox found themselves behind early, and the one run they gained back in the third wasn't enough to make much of a dent, particularly given that Chris Resop allowed two more runs to cross the place in trying to finish the third for Workman.

What did make a difference was a pair of two-run homers clubbed by Bryce Brentz and Mike Carp in the seventh and eighth innings respectively. With the Red Sox manufacturing a sixth run in the latter inning, they actually managed to even the score with the Pirates for a brief moment. But Henry Owens, having already pitched a very nice seventh, was unable to provide a clean eighth, and gave up a game-winning double to former Red Sox farmhand Chris McGuiness after hitting Jarek Cunningham with a pitch to lead off the inning.

More concerning than the actual result on the field, however, was the fact that A.J. Pierzynski limped his way into the dugout in the late innings after reaching base. Pierzynski says it's just a rolled ankle, and that he's fine, but that's the second such injury Pierzynski has dealt with so far this spring. Certainly something to keep an eye on.