The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the New York Mets 8-2 Monday afternoon. Mitch Keller earned his 10th victory of the season, tossing eight innings. He allowed the two Mets runs and struck out six. He did not walk a batter.
Keller became just the fourth pitcher in Pirates history to earn at least 10 wins, have at least 100 strikeouts and 100-plus innings pitched prior to the All-Star break.
Oneil Cruz gave the Bucs an early 2-0 lead in the fourth inning with his 14th home run of the season. (It was the Pirates first hit of the game..) Joshua Palacios helped cap a five-run fifth inning with his first home run of the year.
The Pirates open a three-game series in Milwaukee tonight. First pitch is 8:10pm. Pre-game on WISR begins at 7:45pm.
The Pirates are four games under .500 entering tonight’s game and are four games out of a Wild Card spot in the National League. They trail the first-place Brewers by 9-1/2 games.
Cruz left Monday’s game late with hamstring tightness.