The Pirates beat the Mets 14-2 (see scoreboard here ) on Friday night in Pittsburgh. You could even say the loss could have been bigger than that. The Pirates ended up hitting seven home runs, including two grand slams, while rookie starting pitcher Paul Skenes had another outstanding outing.
Let’s start with the Pirates’ offense. As mentioned, they hit seven home runs, a single-season record for a team. The only other time this season a team hit more than five home runs was when the A’s hit six against the Marlins on May 4. This is the fourth time for the Pirates franchise that they’ve hit seven home runs, with the most recent time coming on May 26 of last season. They also hit seven home runs in a game in 2003 and 1947.
The MLB record for home runs by a team in a game is 10, set by the Blue Jays on September 14, 1987. Ernie Whitt hit three home runs while Rance Mulliniks and George Bell each hit two. But back to the 2024 Pirates.
The seven-homer outing included grand slams by Bryan Reynolds…
…and Rowdy Tellez:
Both players hit two home runs in the game. Reynolds finished with six RBIs, Tellez five. Other players to hit home runs were Jack Suwinski, Michael A. Taylor and Yasmani Grandal.
On the other hand, it tied the Mets’ franchise record for home runs allowed. They had also allowed seven home runs in a game in 1967, 1998, 2017 and 2018.
The Pirates’ late-inning offense somewhat overshadowed another impressive outing from rookie sensation Skenes. He left the game with a 4-2 lead after working seven innings and allowing just two runs on four hits while striking out eight batters.
In 10 career starts, Skenes is now 5-0 with a 2.12 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 78 strikeouts in 59 1/3 innings.