Hunter Barco had never earned a save in his college or pro career, but the Pittsburgh Pirates put the rookie left-hander in position to do that by turning to him in extra innings.
After getting out of a jam in the 10th inning, Barco gave up a three-run homer to Luis Robert Jr. in the 11th as the New York Mets rallied for a 4-2 walk-off win Saturday at Citi Field.
A 6-foot-4, 229-pounder who was a 2022 second-round pick and is ranked the No. 96 prospect by MLB Pipeline, Barco has spent his career primarily as a starting pitcher. He escaped the 10th with a pair of plays at home plate, so the Pirates sent him back out for the 11th inning. With Bo Bichette on second as the automatic runner, Jorge Polanco drew a full-count walk. Robert then sent a 1-0 slider below the strike zone to left field to lift the Mets to victory.
“Definitely a crazy situation coming in. I’d never come into anything like that,” Barco said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “So, really just taking experiences out of it. I was just lucky to get out of the 10th inning. I’ve got to give credit to Robert there. Great swing.”
After combining to score 18 runs in the season opener — an 11-7 Mets win — the teams played nine scoreless innings behind solid performances by starters Mitch Keller and David Peterson. The Pirates were 2 for 18 with runners in scoring position and left 17 men on base.
“That’s tough,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “We’ll be better there, as we go through. We have to be. Find a way to push those runs across. We showed really good offensively in the opener. Today, with runners in scoring position, it kind of evaded us.”
Keller had a quality start by tossing six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three without a walk. He threw 49 of 77 pitches for strikes, drawing 11 called strikes and five whiffs. It marked the 16th time in his career Keller pitched at least six innings without surrendering a run, a feat he accomplished twice last season.
The Pirates loaded the bases against Peterson in the fifth inning, starting with Jared Triolo’s two-out infield single and followed by Ryan O’Hearn’s single to right and Bryan Reynolds drawing a walk. But Peterson got Marcell Ozuna to pop up to first base to escape.
They stranded two more runners in the sixth after Nick Gonzales reached on an infield single and Nick Yorke on a fly to shallow right-center. The Mets replaced Peterson with Huascar Brazoban, who struck out Joey Bart on three pitches and got Jake Mangum to ground out to first.
Where Paul Skenes’ Opening Day start didn’t survive the first inning — in part because of mishaps by Oneil Cruz in center — Keller benefited from some spectacular defensive plays. Gonzales made an acrobatic catch in foul territory on Brett Baty in the fifth inning. Mangum chased down a line drive by Francisco Lindor, the center fielder’s momentum causing him to climb the wall and get a celebratory reaction from Keller on the mound.
Justin Lawrence replaced Keller for the seventh and threw eight of his first 12 pitches for balls, issuing back-to-back walks of Polanco and Robert. After a mound visit from pitching coach Bill Murphy, Lawrence rebounded to strike out Baty and Marcus Semien before the Pirates turned to lefty Gregory Soto to face the left handed-hitting rookie Carson Benge, who homered against Lawrence in the opener. Soto struck out Benge on seven pitches to strand both runners in the seventh.
Soto escaped another jam in the eighth, which started with a four-pitch walk of No. 9 batter Francisco Alvarez. Soto froze Lindor with a full-count sinker for a strikeout, but pinch runner Tyrone Taylor reached second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on Juan Soto’s groundout. With the go-ahead run 90 feet from home plate, however, Gregory Soto struck out Bichette with a sweeper to end the inning.
In the ninth, Mangum doubled down the left-field line and reached third on Triolo’s groundout. O’Hearn drew a full-count walk to put runners on the corners, but Devin Williams struck out Reynolds to keep the Pirates off the scoreboard. Like Soto, Dennis Santana started the ninth by walking Polanco before getting Robert to ground out to first. O’Hearn made a leaping snag of a Baty line drive, then doubled off Polanco at second to force extra innings.
The Pirates finally scored in the 10th, when Gonzales nearly dropped to a knee to make contact with Luis Garcia’s 0-1 sweeper low and away for a single to left-center that scored automatic runner Reynolds from second base to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. The Pirates loaded the bases on a Brandon Lowe single and Henry Davis walk, but Mangum’s broken-bat grounder to third ended the rally.
The Pirates brought in Barco, who made his major-league debut last September, pitching three innings in two relief appearances, and earned a spot on the Opening Day roster as a bulk reliever with a solid spring training.
The Mets started the 10th with Baty on second as the automatic runner and soon loaded the bases with no outs after Barco hit Semien with a pitch and gave up a single through short to pinch hitter Mark Vientos.
Luis Torrens tied the score with a sharp single to right field to score Baty. Lowe fielded Lindor’s grounder to second and threw to catcher Davis, who made a tiptoe catch to force Semien out at home plate. Barco jammed Juan Soto for a check-swing dribbler that Barco bare-handed and tossed underhand to Davis for the forceout. Barco then got Bichette to fly out to right to take it to the 11th.
“I would’ve liked to have walked off with a zero there instead of tying the game,” Barco said, “but just really limited the damage.”
Mangum started the 11th inning as the automatic runner, advanced to third on O’Hearn’s groundout to second and scored when Reynolds hit a slow roller down the third-base line for a 2-1 Pirates lead. Ozuna hit a two-out single to the right-field corner to put runners on the corners, but Gonzales struck out to end the frame.
“A lot of ups and downs there,” Kelly said of Barco. “To get bases loaded and find a way in a tied game with Lindor and Soto and to get Bichette, he did a good job getting that to the 11th. Then Robert just got him there at the end.”