Max Kranick had his moments, but he couldn’t match his first major league start. Kranick lasted three innings as the Pirates dropped the second game of their doubleheader with the Mets, 4-2.
Kranick’s perfect record as a major leaguer went by the boards when Francisco Lindor hit a one-out single to center. A walk put two on. Kranick fanned Pete Alonzo, but Jeff McNeil doubled to score two.
Kranick needed 32 pitches to get through the first, but came back with a 13-pitch second. The Pirates made it 2-1 in the top of the third when Kevin Newman beat out a bunt, and Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds both singled.
In the bottom of the inning, Kranick fanned the first two hitters, but Alonzo launched a home run to make it 3-1. Two more runners reached before Kranick got out of the inning. He left for a pinch hitter in the fourth, having fanned five, and allowed four hits and three walks. He threw 41 of 70 pitches for strikes.
Chasen Shreve kept his former team off the board in the fourth and fifth. In the sixth, Jacob Stallings pulled the Pirates back to within a run with his seventh home run of the year.
Clay Holmes gave that one back in the bottom of the sixth. He walked the leadoff hitter, then with that runner on second and two out, intentionally walked Lindor. Billy McKinney foiled the strategy with a single that put the Mets up, 4-2.
Edwin Diaz made quick work of Newman, Hayes and Reynolds in the seventh, striking out all three on just ten pitches. The Mets also silenced The Big Nogowski, who went 0-for-3 in the game. Derek Shelton said Kranick will head back to AAA after the game.
