Mets blow big lead in loss
Last-place Pittsburgh overcomes 5-0 deficit, scores 2 off Diaz in 9th
Wilmer Difo’s tiebreaking single in the ninth capped Pittsburgh’s biggest comeback of the season, and the Pirates rallied from an early five-run deficit to beat the Mets 6-5 on Sunday.
The NL East-leading Mets — atop their division at the All-star Break for the first time since 2007 — jumped out to a 5-0 lead against Chase De Jong in the first on a two-run homer by Francisco Lindor and a three-run shot by Michael Conforto.
The Pirates began inching back in the fifth, when Rodolfo Castro and Michael Perez hit back-to-back solo home runs.
Castro hit a two-run homer in the sixth — per Elias, he is the first player since Kyle Higashioka in 2018 to homer for each of his first three big league hits — and helped keep the Pirates within a run by spearing a line drive by Brandon Nimmo in the seventh and firing to first to double up Luis Guillorme.
Closer Edwin Diaz, the fifth pitcher used by the Mets, wriggled out of a bases-loaded, oneout jam in the eighth to preserve a 5-4 lead. Diaz (3-3) gave up a one-out double to Kevin Newman in the ninth before retiring Bryan Reynolds on a groundout.
But John Nogowski hit an RBI single — his 14th hit in 28 at-bats since joining the Pirates on Monday, the most by a Pittsburgh player in his first seven games
with the team since at least 1901 — and Difo followed with his run-scoring hit for a 6-5 lead.
David Bednar (2-1) allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth. Richard Rodriguez worked around a leadoff single by Nimmo in the ninth to earn his 12th save.
Difo and Adam Frazier had three hits for the Pirates, who are in last place in the NL Central at the All-star Break for the first time since 2010.
The Mets headed into the All-star break after blowing their biggest lead of a season in a loss.
“All losses are tough,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “We had the 5-0 lead and we didn’t get much going afterward.”
Lindor, who flied out to end
the game, had three hits with a walk. He is batting .333 with two homers, 10 RBIS and a .500 onbase percentage since July 1. He entered the month hitting .215 with nine homers, 26 RBIS and a .301 on-base percentage.
Aaron Loup served as New York’s opener and tossed two scoreless innings in the first start of his 10-year big league career. Jerad Eickhoff followed by giving up two runs and six hits over 22⁄3 innings. Jeurys Familia, Miguel Castro and Diaz combined to allow four runs, seven hits and three walks in four innings.
“We were short on pitching,” Rojas said. “Some guys had to come in and try to do the inningplus and could not quite do it.”