The New York Mets win a matinee in Pittsburgh to win the series

The New York Mets defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Wednesday afternoon. The game was played at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jon Niese made the start for the Mets and pitched very well. The bullpen did it’s job and Frank Francisco earned his 12^th save of the season. Kirk Nieuwenhuis led the Mets offense. Charlie Morton pitched pretty well for the Pirates but it wasn’t good enough on this day.

Niese pitched 7 2/3 innings giving up five hits and a run. He walked two and struck out five and picked up his third win of the season. Bobby Parnell struck out the only batter that he faced and Francisco pitched a perfect inning including two strikeouts. Morton lost his fifth game of the season. He pitched seven innings giving up eight hits and three runs. He struck out a batter. Jason Grilli struck out the side in his one inning and Brad Lincoln pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout.

Mike Baxter had a hit, Nieuwenhuis had two hits and an RBI and David Wright had a hit and an RBI. Lucas Duda had a hit and an RBI, Ike Davis had a hit and Ronny Cedeno had a hit. Rob Johnson had a hit. Wright had a double and the Mets were 2-6 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base. Davis committed an error.

Harrison had a hit, Hernandez drew a walk and Andruw McCutchen had a hit and an RBI. McGehee drew a walk, Navarro had a hit and Clint Barmes had two hits. Harrison had a double, the Pirates were 1-4 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base.

Duda had an RBI single in the first to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. In the fifth Nieuwenhuis had a sacrifice fly and Wright had an RBI double to make it 3-0 Mets. McCutchen had an RBI single in the sixth and that finished the scoring for the game.

The Mets won two out of three in the series. The Mets improved their record to 24-20 and the Pirates record dropped to 20-24. The Mets return home to take on the San Diego Padres on Thursday night to start a four game series.