Pirates set season-high in runs, sweep bruised Mets

Colin Beazley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jun 29, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — On Saturday, after being battered by the Pirates in consecutive games at PNC Park, the New York Mets held a closed-doors team meeting. “We’ll see if it works or not,” left fielder Brandon Nimmo told reporters.

Then on Sunday, the Pirates jumped ahead with a five-run first, added on throughout, and cruised to a 12-1 win. It was enough of a beatdown that a position player (outfielder Travis Jankowski) pitched the bottom of the eighth, allowing two runs on two singles, a hit by pitch, a walk and a sacrifice fly.

It’s the Pirates’ second sweep of the season, with both coming against the top teams in the NL East (Phillies).

Everybody hit. Oneil Cruz hit two two-run homers. Bryan Reynolds went 2 for 4 with a homer and a double. Henry Davis went 4 for 4 with a double. Ke’Bryan Hayes went 3 for 5 with two doubles.

The game turned into a rout quickly. With two on and two outs against starter Frankie Montas in the first, Hayes scored Andrew McCutchen and Reynolds with a single to center. Cruz launched the next pitch into the right-field bleachers, his first homer in almost three weeks. Suddenly hot Tommy Pham followed with a homer of his own, as he has a five-game hitting streak and is 8 for his last 15.

The Pirates added a run in the second on a McCutchen sacrifice fly, two more in the fifth on Reynolds’ homer and an RBI single from Pham, and two more in the seventh when Hayes doubled and Cruz launched a ball over the Clemente wall.

The Pirates outscored the Mets 30-4 in the three-game series, the most lopsided Pirates series since 1975, per the Elias Sports Bureau. It’s the first time since 1935 that the Pirates won every game of a series by at least seven runs. The Mets, who set a franchise-low with the minus-26 run differential, are suddenly in freefall. They have lost 13 of 16.

It was over when …

… Cruz’s first homer hit the seats. The first inning beatdown took any intrigue out of the game.

On the mound

Mike Burrows started for the Pirates and threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits. He struck out five. Genesis Cabrera completed 1 1/3 innings against his former team, then Carmen Mlodzinski pitched the final 3 2/3 innings.

The lone blemish was a fourth inning homer from catcher Luis Torrens off Burrows.

At the plate

The Pirates had 16 hits, their second-most this season, and set a season-high in runs.

Most valuable player

Cruz went 2 for 4 with two two-run homers and two strikeouts.

Up next

The Pirates will look to continue their momentum against a team playing much better baseball than the Mets, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals and Pirates begin a three-game series at PNC Park on Monday at 6:40 p.m. ET. Erick Fedde (3-7, 4.11 ERA) will throw for the Cardinals against Pirates lefty Andrew Heaney (3-7, 4.48).

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