The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 on Friday at PNC Park, and Carmen Mlodzinski’s return to the rotation ended after three innings that left Pittsburgh chasing the game from the start. The Mets struck for four runs in the third inning after a 36-minute rain delay, then held off a late Pirates rally to hand Pittsburgh its fourth straight loss.
That was the game people were searching for because Mlodzinski was back in a starting role after being bumped to the bullpen in late May, with the Pirates needing innings from him after Mitch Keller was out for the rest of the season. Instead, he allowed five runs on seven hits and one walk in three innings, and he said afterward it was “not my best baseball today.”
The inning that changed everything came right after the delay. A.J. Ewing opened the night with a double and scored on Carson Benge’s single for a 1-0 lead, then the Mets broke it open in the third when Francisco Lindor scored on another Benge single and Marcus Semien launched a three-run homer, his 14th, to make it 5-0. The Mets added one more run in the fourth for a 6-0 lead, while Zac Thornton kept Pittsburgh scoreless through five innings.
That left the Pirates with too much ground to make up and too little traffic on the bases. They did not get a runner into scoring position until the bottom of the fourth, and even though they pushed a rally in the ninth, Jake Mangum ended it with a lineout to center. Pittsburgh finished 57-61, four games under.500 for the first time this season, and lost for the fifth time in six games.
Mlodzinski did not hide from the result. He said he had to take accountability and that there was “no excuse” for what happened, adding that he needed to step up and help the team win. The Pirates, meanwhile, still have a rotation opening to manage and a left-handed starter problem that has not gone away, but Friday’s answer was clear: the return start did not give them the reset they were hoping for.
