The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2026 season opener against the New York Mets went from “That couldn’t have started better” to “That couldn’t have started worse.”

Real quick.

It ended poorly, too, with an 11-7 defeat.

Game No.1 of 162 also crystallized a lot of the reasons to feel better about this team, while also highlighting a lot of the reasons to remain guarded.

• Oneil Cruz worked a seven-pitch at-bat to open the game and flipped a single into center field off of Freddy Peralta. New acquisition Brandon Lowe followed by taking the first pitch he saw as a Pirate over the right field wall for a home run.

• The next three Pirates went down on strikes.

• Pitcher Paul Skenes didn’t make it out of the first inning, allowing five runs on four hits and two walks, while throwing 37 pitches to record two outs. It was the shortest outing of his career

“I walked the leadoff guy. Didn’t execute with two strikes when I needed a punch-out or a double play,” Skenes said on SportsNet Pittsburgh.

• Three of those runs came in because Cruz misplayed two fly balls in a row in center field.

“For sure, I don’t want to start the season like I did. I’m just going to continue to work and focus on my work and get better,” Cruz said.

Cruz said the sun played at least a role in both mistakes, especially on the second miscue. But he wasn’t wearing sunglasses. One might assume a detail like that would not be overlooked on Opening Day. Pirates manager Don Kelly was asked about that after the game.

“Yeah. We need to make sure that we’re prepared right there,” Kelly said.

Yeah. Indeed.

• Cruz then proceeded to strike out three of his next four times at the plate. Bryan Reynolds went down on strikes twice as well. In all, the Pirates’ lineup posted 10 strikeouts, no walks and a 1 for 7 effort with runners in scoring position.

• Six pitchers connected the dots through the next eight innings, walking seven more Mets, allowing seven more hits and six more runs.

• Henry Davis yielded a passed ball, and there were two pitcher-fielding misplays, including an error by Yohan Ramirez.

• On a positive note, Lowe homered in his second plate appearance as well. Another new addition, Ryan O’Hearn, hit an opposite-field homer in the sixth inning.

Every one of those developments speaks to the reasons why Pittsburgh should think the Pirates will be better than their 71-win total of a year ago, while also illuminating why this team still has a long way to go to be a playoff contender.

On the plus side, the new guys in the batting order are going to help. There will be more runs scored.

On the negative side, the defense is very shaky. They strike out way too much. The bullpen is a question mark. And after two years of being immortal, Skenes may be common from time to time in 2026. He’s not going to be a sub-2.00 ERA guy his entire career.

At Citi Field on Thursday, we saw a nine-inning encapsulation of about 90% of our Pirates preview from Wednesday morning.

On some days, the 2026 Pirates are going to look like the 1927 Yankees. On others, well, they are going to look like the 2025 Pirates. Or the 2024 Pirates. Maybe the 2023 Pirates.

Doesn’t matter. They’ve all been roughly the same. It’s just that now, they have a little more offense.

But that’s how teams such as this year’s Bucco squad end up winning just as many games as they lose. Which is why I went with 81 wins at the start of the year, and why I thought that some of those making predictions of 86 wins, 87 wins or National League Central titles were guilty of pie-in-the-sky thinking.

Hopefully, those folks are wearing sunglasses. Otherwise, like Cruz, that pie may fall out of the sky and hit them in the face.

Featured Local Businesses

More local businesses