{"id":261463,"date":"2026-08-08T05:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261463\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:06:09","slug":"slumping-pittsburgh-pirates-loses-to-last-place-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261463\/","title":{"rendered":"Slumping Pittsburgh Pirates loses to last-place Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoonamirror.com\/sports\/local-sports\/\" class=\"article_cat_label\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Local Sports<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    NL baseball<\/p>\n<p>                                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786165569_431_B3-Pirates-1-450x300.webp\"  alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski collects himself after giving up an RBI single to New York Mets&#8217; Carson Benge during the first inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar)<\/p>\n<p>PITTSBURGH &#8212; Marcus Semien hit a three-run homer, rookie Zac Thornton pitched five scoreless innings and the New York Mets matched a season high with their fourth straight win by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Semien&#8217;s second homer in two games and 14th of the season, a drive to left-center off Carmen Mlodzinski, capped a four-run third that put the Mets ahead 5-0. New York, last in the NL East, swept a three-game series in Cleveland before busing to Pittsburgh on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Thornton (3-2) allowed four hits while striking out three and walking two. The left-hander remained in the game following a 36-minute rain delay in the top of the third.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh got two runs in the seventh and then two more in the ninth off closer Devin Williams, but a pair of baserunning mistakes cost the Pirates as they tried to rally.<\/p>\n<p>Semien made a sliding stop at second base of Bryan Reynolds&#8217; grounder with a runner aboard to end it.<\/p>\n<p>Mets rookie outfielder Carson Benge was removed with left wrist soreness in the bottom of the fourth, one inning after sliding into the wall in the left-field corner while catching a flyball hit by Ronny Simon.<\/p>\n<p>Benge was replaced by Cristian Pache with the Mets leading 6-0. Benge helped New York, which improved to 51-66 on the season, build the lead with a pair of run-scoring singles.<\/p>\n<p>Making his first start since May 25, Mlodzinski (6-4) was tagged for five runs and seven hits in three innings. Mlodzinski returned to the rotation from the bullpen after Mitch Keller sustained a season-ending right shoulder injury in his previous start.<\/p>\n<p>A.J. Ewing, another rookie outfielder, had three hits and scored twice for the Mets. Ewing led off the game with a double and scored on a single by Benge, who also singled home a run in the third before Semien homered. Francisco Lindor added an RBI single in the fourth.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates, who are 4-11 since the All-Star break and in last place at 57-61, got two hits each from Reynolds, Nick Gonzales, Simon and Jared Triolo.<\/p>\n<p>On deck<\/p>\n<p>Saturday: New York Mets at Pittsburgh, 6:40 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Pitchers: Mets RHP Robert Stock (0-1) vs. Pirates RHP Bubba Chandler (4-8)<\/p>\n<p>TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/p>\n<p>Sunday: New York Mets at Pittsburgh, 1:35 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Pitchers: Mets LHP Sean Manaea (3-5) vs. Pirates RHP Jared Jones (2-3)<\/p>\n<p>TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Sports NL baseball Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski collects himself after giving up an RBI single to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-261463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}