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The Pittsburgh Pirates were rewarded for their approach at the plate Sunday afternoon when they matched a season high with nine runs.

A piecemeal eighth-inning rally left the New York Mets feeling similarly satisfied.

The Pirates will look to continue their strong early-season start and the Mets hope to climb to .500 on Monday night when the teams open a three-game series in New York.

Left-hander Martin Perez (1-0, 1.89 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Pirates against right-hander Adrian Houser (0-1, 5.40).

Both teams earned wins at home Sunday afternoon.

Andrew McCutchen hit the 300th homer of his career to cap the Pirates’ 9-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo had eighth-inning RBIs as the Mets edged the Kansas City Royals, 2-1.

The Pirates’ comeback win – they trailed by one run twice before Jack Suwinski hit a go-ahead fifth-inning grand slam – was long decided when their resourcefulness impressed manager Derek Shelton in the ninth.

Ke’Bryan Hayes led off the ninth inning with a double before tagging up and moving to third on Rowdy Tellez’s fly out. McCutchen followed with the milestone homer for the Pirates, who also scored nine runs in consecutive wins over the Miami Marlins on March 30-31.

“I think those are the little things that continue to play,” Shelton said. “Rowdy gets a guy over in the 7-2 game. ‘Cutch’ hits his homer after that, but still (Hayes is) on third base and we’re putting pressure on. I’m really happy with the way this group has played for all nine innings.”

The win improved the Pirates to 11-5 for the first time since 2018 and matched their best 16-game start this century.

The Mets opened the season with five straight losses but have won seven of their last 10. New York has scored 58 runs in that span after scoring just 11 runs in its first five games.

The two runs Sunday were the Mets’ fewest since a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on April 4, but the eighth-inning rally continued their recent trend of late-inning persistence. The Mets forced the Atlanta Braves and Royals to use their closers, Raisel Iglesias and James McArthur, respectively, in losses on Wednesday and Saturday.

“Having the ability to get back in games when you get down – and we’ve shown that, the fight, pitch to pitch, at-bat to at-bat,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.

Perez didn’t factor into the decision last Tuesday, when he allowed one run over eight innings in the Pirates’ 5-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. He is 4-0 with a 2.88 ERA in eight career games (four starts) against the Mets.

Houser took the loss last Tuesday after giving up five runs over five innings as the Mets fell to the Braves, 6-5. He is 4-3 with a 3.79 ERA in 14 games (10 starts) against the Pirates.

–Field Level Media