The Pittsburgh Pirates did not just lose a game on Friday night. They let one get away in a hurry. In a 6-4 defeat to the New York Mets at PNC Park, Carmen Mlodzinski’s first start since late May was reduced to damage control after the Mets ripped the game open with four runs in the third inning.
That is the brutal truth of it. The Pirates were already in a fragile spot, missing Mitch Keller for the rest of the season and trying to patch together a rotation that had no room for error. Mlodzinski was brought back into the starting mix because the situation demanded it. Instead, the Mets exposed the gap immediately, turned a brief weather delay into an opening, and left Pittsburgh staring at a fourth consecutive loss.
A third inning the Pirates could not survive
The game started badly enough. A.J. Ewing led off with a bloop double, then scored on Carson Benge’s single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. That alone would have been manageable. What came next was the real problem.
A 36-minute rain delay interrupted the third inning, and when play resumed the Mets came back with no mercy at all. They scored four runs on four hits to surge ahead 5-0, then added another run in the fourth to make it 6-0. At that point the Pirates were not chasing a ballgame so much as trying to stop it from becoming ugly.
That is what separates a competitive night from a collapse. The Pirates had no answer once the Mets started stacking contact and pressure together, and Mlodzinski was left carrying the kind of line that tells the whole story: five runs allowed on seven hits and one walk in three innings.
Mlodzinski was asked to fill a hole — and the hole stayed open
There is some sympathy in the setup. Before Friday, Keller was already out for the remainder of the season, and Mlodzinski had been pushed to the bullpen in late May. This was not a pitcher being handed a luxury assignment. It was a pitcher being thrown back into the fire because the Pirates had no better option. But that reality does not soften the result.
Mlodzinski said it plainly afterward: “Not ideal. Definitely not my best baseball today.” He added that he had to take accountability, called it a tough-luck inning, and admitted there was “definitely no excuse.” That is the right tone, but the numbers still land like a warning. Three innings is not enough. Five runs is too many. And 63 pitches for such limited return is exactly the kind of outing that leaves a team with more questions than answers.
Don Kelly’s assessment was equally direct, noting that the Pirates “struggled” and stressing, against another lefty, that they have to be better. That matters because this was not only about one pitcher. It was about a lineup and a club that continue to look too fragile when the opposition gets a foothold early.
The Pirates fought briefly, then ran out of road
To their credit, the Pirates did not vanish completely. They put together a rally in the fifth inning before it ended with Jake Mangum lining out to center. But by then the game had already been decided. The Mets had built too much of a cushion, and Pittsburgh’s comeback bid never got close enough to become threatening.
The wider damage is the real concern. This defeat dropped the Pirates to 57-61, four games under.500 for the first time this season, and deepened a run that has now become four straight losses and five in six games. In a crowded wild-card race, that is the kind of slide that does not simply hurt — it changes the conversation.
The Mets are not exactly cruising themselves, but they were the sharper, more efficient team when the game tilted. The Pirates, by contrast, looked like a club trying to survive the calendar rather than attack the standings. That is the uncomfortable part. When you are already last place, a night like this does not just count as one more loss. It looks like the season narrowing by the week.
