New York Mets vs Pittsburgh Pirates Box Score on May 26, 2017

The Sports Xchange
May 26, 2017

PITTSBURGH -- Neil Walker went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs as the New York Mets clobbered the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-1 on Friday night at PNC Park.

In the process, Walker eclipsed 500 career RBIs and helped end his club's six-game road losing skid while also helping to end his original team's two-game winning streak.

Walker, from suburban Pittsburgh and a fan favorite when he played here, followed his homers in the third and fifth with a bloop RBI single in the sixth that gave the Mets a 6-1 lead.

New York tacked on two more that inning on Lucas Duda's double for an 8-1 lead. The Mets finished with 12 hits off four Pirates pitchers.

Mets starter Jacob deGrom (4-1) was two outs away from pitching a complete game. In 8 1/3 innings, he gave up one run -- a homer by Gregory Polanco in the fourth -- on six hits, striking out 10 and walking one.

Eighty of deGrom's 118 pitches were strikes.

Pittsburgh starter Chad Kuhl (1-5) allowed five runs on eight hits, including both Walker homers, in 4 1/3 innings, with three strikeouts and no walks.

The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the second on Duda's leadoff double off the right-field wall and, one out later, Curtis Granderson's RBI double to left-center field.

Walker upped the lead to 3-0 with a homer inside the right-field foul pole in the third.

Polanco, in his first game back from the disabled list, answered with his second homer, over the bleachers in right, to lead off the Pirates' fourth and make it 3-1.

In the fifth, Jay Bruce's sacrifice fly to center brought home Jose Reyes, who led off with a triple to the wall in right-center, for a 4-1 Mets lead. Walker followed with a homer to right to make it 5-1.

It marked Walker's fifth career multi-homer game and gave him his 500th RBIs. It also chased Kuhl.

NOTES: Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen batted sixth, the first time as a starter he slotted lower than fourth in the lineup. ... New York promoted RHP Tyler Pill from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned RHP Rafael Montero to Las Vegas. In a clerical move, the Mets transferred RHP Seth Lugo (elbow) from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. ... According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Mets' flight Thursday night was delayed in New York, so 2B Neil Walker, a Pittsburgh area native, used his cell phone to stream the Pittsburgh Penguins' Game 7 win in the NHL's Eastern Conference final.