Rodolfo Castro and Oneil Cruz homered on Tuesday to help the Pittsburgh Pirates snap a four-game losing streak with an 8-2 rout of the visiting New York Mets.
Cruz had a career-high three hits and Bryan Reynolds and Jason Delay each added an RBI single for the Pirates (50-84).
Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller (5-10) pitched six shutout innings, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out two.
Brandon Nimmo homered for the Mets (85-51), who have lost three straight.
New York starter Taijuan Walker (10-4) gave up four runs on six hits and two walks in five innings. He fanned three.
Mets right fielder Starling Marte left in the second, an inning after he got hit by a pitch on the right hand.
In the Pittsburgh second, Kevin Newman reached on an infield single with one out and went to third on Jack Suwinski’s single to right-center. Michael Chavis got Newman home with a sacrifice fly to center for a 1-0 lead.
Reynolds walked with one out in the third. Castro followed with a high-arching homer, his sixth, off the foul pole in right to push the margin to 3-0.
With one out in the fifth, Cruz doubled to right. Reynolds knocked him in with a single to right to put the Pirates up 4-0.
Against Robert Stephenson in the seventh, James McCann singled to left with two outs. Nimmo followed with a 429-foot homer to right-center, his 13th, to cut New York’s deficit to 4-2.
The Pirates blew it open in the eighth.
Against Bryce Montes de Oca, Ke’Bryan Hayes walked and stole second. Newman singled to center, with Hayes going to third and Newman going to second on a questionable throw home. After Suwinski struck out, with Chavis at bat, Hayes scored on a wild pitch, with Newman going to third. Chavis struck out before Delay singled to shallow center to drive in Newman for a 6-2 lead.
Tommy Hunter replaced Montes de Oca and gave up Cruz’s 13th homer, a two-run shot to right that landed in the Allegheny River.
–Field Level Media
