COMMENTARY
For more than a quarter of the season, the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates have been the same thing. Mercifully, not for more than that.
Watching the Red Sox limp through Thursday’s series-finale loss at PNC Park, denied a sweep and their first three-game winning streak since June 26, the feeling was lost opportunity. Pittsburgh, on a 100-loss track, is wiling away another forgetting summer amid decades of them. They should be swept. Add Thursday to the small pile of nights that will likely be what’s between Boston and playoff baseball come Oct.