Wilmer Difo and John Nogowski delivered RBI singles in the ninth inning to lift the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-5 win against the New York Mets in the finale of their four-game series on Sunday afternoon.

Nogowski collected the tying hit and Difo had the go-ahead hit off Edwin Diaz (3-3) after two were out to help the Pirates earn a split of the series.

Rodolfo Castro homered twice, Michael Perez also went deep, and Difo and Adam Frazier each had three hits for the Pirates.

Pirates starter Chase De Jong allowed five runs and four hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked three.

David Bednar (2-1) threw a scoreless eighth for Pittsburgh and Richard Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 12th save.

Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto hit first-inning home runs to give the Mets an early 5-0 lead.

Mets left-hander Aaron Loup made his first major league start after 436 relief appearances spread over 10 years and he threw two scoreless innings, allowing two hits with two strikeouts and no walks.

De Jong gave up a leadoff double to Brandon Nimmo in the first inning followed by a two-run homer to right field by Lindor, his 11th of the season.

Both hits came on 2-2 counts.

De Jong then walked two of the next three batters, bringing Conforto to the plate and he sent the ball over the center-field fence for a three-run homer and 5-0 lead.

Jerad Eickhoff pitched a scoreless third and fourth for the Mets, but surrendered back-to-back one-out home runs to Castro and Perez in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 5-2.

Castro came up with a runner aboard in the sixth inning and went deep again to trim the lead to 5-4.

The Pirates had the bases loaded with one out in the eighth, but Diaz struck out Perez and pinch hitter Ke'Bryan Hayes to escape the jam.

--Field Level Media