Mets complete sweep of Bucs

Michael Conforto made an adjustment two weeks ago that he hoped would shake off his midseason slump. He noticed pitchers were attacking him early and getting ahead in the count. So Conforto adjusted his ap- proach to hack at pitches sooner in the at-bat. On Sunday, he helped lead the Mets to a 8-7 win and sweep over the Pirates when he blasted a two-run homer on the second pitch of his first-inning at-bat.

Edwin Diaz made it closer than the Mets wanted by giving up a tworun homer in his first appearance since getting drilled by a comebacker on Thursday. But the Mets (50-55) hung on and recorded their fifth sweep of the season and third at home on Sunday afternoon behind Jason Vargas’ 5.2inning start at Citi Field.

Vargas gave up three earned runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts over 100 pitches in what could be his final start for the Mets ahead of Wednesday’s trade deadline.

It was the Mets’ first sweep over the Pirates since their fourgame series sweep from Sept. 13-16, 2010 at Citi Field. The Mets have won four of five series since the AllStar break.

Conforto is batting .298 (17-for-57) since Mickey Callaway moved plugged him into the two-hole, ahead of Pete Alonso. Conforto was batting .100 (4for-40) with four RBI, six walks and 13 strikeouts over 12 games from June 25 to July 12 before moving to the two-hole.

After Conforto’s tworun homer in the first, he tacked on a leadoff walk in the fourth inning and reached on a fielding error by Starling Marte in the sixth.