Column: The pen is mightier than before

Russell Martin connects on a two-run blast to right-center in the second inning Tuesday at PNC Park. — GETTY

Tony Watson held the game in his left hand, essentially, and only he and Russell Martin knew what was coming next.

Except that they really didn’t.

“I called for a changeup. I know that much,” the catcher was telling me after the Pirates’ 4-0 blanking of the Red Sox on Tuesday night at PNC Park. “What happened to it after that …”

What happened to it after that was that Yoenis Cespedes, Boston’s light-tower-power with the 21 bombs, swung over it for strike three to end the eighth inning and, in all reality, bury any chance for a Red Sox rally. Two were aboard, two were out, and it was all or nothing.

Nothing won in a landslide.