Mets punch back again in Pittsburgh, riding Marcus Semien’s blast and Zac Thornton’s calm start

The New York Mets kept their late-season surge moving in Pittsburgh, opening the series against the Pirates with a fourth straight victory. In a season where momentum can tighten the race and test a club’s depth, the Mets’ early run support and pitching control provided a steady base as the week began.

The Mets scored four times in the third inning, turning a tight game into something closer to a cushion. Marcus Semien delivered the key swing, cracking a three-run home run that stretched the Mets’ lead and changed the leverage for Pittsburgh’s next wave of hitters.

New York also got exactly what it needed behind the scenes: five scoreless innings from starter Zac Thornton. With the Pirates working to respond after the third-inning damage, Thornton’s ability to limit damage helped preserve the Mets’ advantage and prevented Pittsburgh from narrowing the game quickly.

The story for the Mets, beyond the box-score mechanics, is that the performance arrived in the same rhythm they have shown since adding pieces around the trade deadline. The Mets’ ability to keep producing in different ways, from run creation to run prevention, matters more than any single inning when a season enters its final stretch.

For the Pirates, the early focus will be on how they respond after conceding a multi-run swing in the middle frame. When games slip like this, late-inning bullpen management becomes central, and New York’s challenge will be to avoid letting Pittsburgh back into the game with free passes or defensive lapses.

As the series continues, the Mets will likely be tested on whether they can convert early leads into more consistent inning-to-inning pressure, especially once Pittsburgh adjusts its plan after Semien’s impact at-bats. The next nights also carry a practical storyline for New York: keeping Thornton and the broader staff in a rhythm that matches their larger calendar.

In the immediate aftermath, the most reliable takeaway is simple. The Mets started the series with both answers, timely power at the plate and scoreless innings on the mound, and they carried that theme into their longest stretch of continued wins in the near term.