Ryan O’Hearn smacked his second run-scoring single of the game Sunday to snap a 10th-inning tie and the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates avoided a season-opening sweep at the hands of the New York Mets with a 4-3 win.
With automatic runner Bryan Reynolds placed at second base to start the inning, O’Hearn poked a Richard Lovelady pitch to center and Reynolds scored easily. Pittsburgh added another run with two outs on an RBI single by Henry Davis that plated pinch-runner Billy Cook.
Reliever Dennis Santana (1-0) pitched a perfect ninth to earn the win and Jose Urquidy handled the 10th for his first save. Lovelady (1-1) got a decision for the second straight game. He drew the win Saturday when New York bagged a 4-2 verdict when Luis Robert Jr. cracked a three-run homer in the last of the 11th inning.
The Mets came close to tying the game in their half of the 10th when Juan Soto drilled a double to left-center that scored auto-runner Francisco Alvarez. But Francisco Lindor was thrown out at the plate. Jorge Polanco nearly won it with a deep drive to right but Cook hauled it in at the fence for the third out.
Neither starter was involved in the decision. Pittsburgh’s Carmen Mlodzinski lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and two runs while walking none and fanning eight. New York’s Nolan McLean gave up four hits and two runs in five innings, issuing two walks and whiffing eight.
The Pirates initiated scoring in the top of the first when McLean walked Oneil Cruz and Brandon Lowe to start the game, followed by a one-out RBI single from O’Hearn that cashed in Cruz. The Mets responded in the second when Marcus Semien’s sacrifice fly to center plated Robert Jr., who singled and reached third on Brett Baty’s single.
Lowe gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead in the third with his third homer of the weekend to right-center, a shot that traveled an estimated 390 feet. But New York equalized in the fifth when Lindor legged out a triple and then trotted home on Soto’s RBI single.
