Pittsburgh Pirates pull out extra inning 5-3 victory over Mets

Coming off a victory on Friday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates (67-46) faced the New York Mets (63-53) in game two of a three-game set. The Pirates started off the game strong, getting out to an early 3-0 lead. But the Mets stormed back to tie the game, which would eventually last 14 innings before Pittsburgh took the lead in the top of the 14th and won by a final score of 5-3.

In the top of the first inning, with Andrew McCutchen on first base, Aramis Ramirez homered off Mets’ starter Jonathon Niese to give Pittsburgh an early 2-0 lead.

In the top of the second inning, Gregory Polanco homered to right field to extend the Pirates’ lead to 3-0.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, after Morton had thrown six fantastic innings of shutout ball, Juan Uribe homered to put New York on the board and cut into the Pirates’ lead at 3-1. Later in the inning, after Ramirez made a throwing error to first, Michael Conforto homered to right, scoring Travis d’Arnaud and tying the game at three.

The game would go to extra innings, and in the top of the 14th inning, with Pedro Florimon pinch-running for Francisco Cervelli at third base, Chris Stewart hit a pinch-hit single to right-center field, scoring Florimon and giving the Pirates a late 4-3 lead. Later in the inning, with Starling Marte on third, Sean Rodriquez hit a blooper over the head of the shortstop, scoring Marte and giving the Pirates a 5-3 lead.

In the bottom of the 14th, Mark Melancon silenced the Mets’ bats, earning his major league-leading 37th save of the season and locking down the 5-3 Pirate victory.

What Stood Out

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Entering the game in the top of the 14th, the Pittsburgh bats looked hot, pulling out the two runs late to give the Pirates their second straight extra innings win of the weekend. The team has now won seven consecutive extra innings games.

On the positive side, Gregory Polanco continues to stay hot. In his first four at-bats, Polanco had three hits and reach on an error, and those at-bats totaled four pitches. Yes, he rakes on the first pitch of at-bats.

On the negative side, the Pirates continue to be woeful on the basepaths, essentially running themselves out of an inning in the 14th when they could have tacked on more runs. Travis Ishikawa tried to bunt, which turned into a double play. Then, Rodriguez was caught stealing third, a move that didn’t make much sense.

What’s Next

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates (68-46) send out Jeff Locke (6-7, 4.43 ERA) on the mound against Mets’ starting pitcher Matt Harvey (11-7, 2.61 ERA) as the Pirates look to sweep the series and go 6-0 against the Mets this season. Last time out, Locke allowed four runs off of seven hits in five innings against St. Louis.

Next: Just how bad has the Pittsburgh Pirates' defense been this season?