Trouble came in twos for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Boston Red Sox, who hit a trio of two-run homers.

On the strength of homers by Bobby Dalbec, Ronaldo Hernandez and Jorge Alfaro, the Red Sox beat the Pirates, 7-4, on Thursday afternoon in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

It overshadowed a strong day at the plate by the Pirates, who saw Oneil Cruz record the hardest hit of spring training and got multi-hit games from Bryan Reynolds (3 for 4), Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ji Hwan Bae (both 2 for 3) as they finished with 11 knocks.

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead against opener Duane Underwood Jr. in the first inning, when Tristan Casas doubled to right field and Dalbec drove a 1-2 curveball 409 feet to left for a home run.

The Pirates tied it in the bottom of the second, when Canaan Smith-Njigba doubled past a diving Greg Allen in left field to drive in Hayes and then scored on Bae’s single to shallow center, knocking the ball out of catcher Jorge Alfaro’s glove. Smith-Njigba is batting .407 (11 for 27) in his last 11 games and is tied with Travis Swaggerty for the team RBI lead with 10.

Right-hander Johan Oviedo replaced Underwood in the second and retired the first nine batters he faced. He struck out five, fanning the side in the third, before giving up a double to Allen and a two-run shot to Ronaldo Hernandez to left as the Red Sox took a 4-2 lead.

Oviedo took the loss despite a solid performance that saw him strike out four consecutive batters. He finished with seven strikeouts and no walks while allowing four hits in four innings, throwing strikes on 40 of his 55 pitches. Oviedo’s seven strikeouts were the most by a Pirates pitcher in a Grapefruit League game since Phil Irwin fanned as many against the Baltimore Orioles on March 11, 2013.

Cruz recorded the hardest hit by a Pirates player this spring with a 115.1 mph groundout in the fifth inning, then followed with a 110.4-mph single in the seventh to record two of the top four hardest hits.

Alfaro added another two-run homer in the sixth, this one off a 2-2 slider by Chase De Jong, to increase Boston’s lead to 6-2. They extended the lead when Colin Holderman walked two batters, threw a wild pitch and gave up a sacrifice fly to Allen to make it 7-2.

After Swaggerty drew a leadoff walk, Rodolfo Castro hit Luis Guerrero’s 99 mph fastball 409 feet to right field for a two-run homer to cut it to 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth.

Castro came to bat with two outs and two on in the bottom of the ninth — after Red Sox lefty Joe Jacques hit leadoff batter Drew Maggi and Swaggerty drew a two-out walk — but went down swinging to end the game.

Roansy Contreras is expected to start against Eduardo Rodriguez when the Pirates play the Detroit Tigers at 6:05 p.m. Friday in Lakeland.

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