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The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes is a slick-fielding third baseman who has been a Gold Glove runner-up. Lately, his offense has been catching up, as the visiting New York Mets are discovering.

Even as every Pittsburgh starter had a hit in a 14-7 blowout of the Mets on Friday, Hayes stood out. He was 5-for-5, tying a career high for hits in a game, with four RBIs and three runs scored.

Hayes has an eight-game hitting streak, with two homers, three doubles and 11 RBIs. He has raised his batting average in that span from .216 to .266.

“Coming off that A’s series, and refueling on an off day (Thursday), we just wanted to be aggressive and swing the bats,” Hayes told AT&T Sportsnet.

The 26-year-old Hayes said he has been “just getting myself in a better position to hit the ball, then being aggressive and trusting my athleticism. At the end of the day, having more confidence.”

The Pirates ended a two-game losing streak, with both defeats coming in blowout fashion against the worst team in baseball, the Oakland Athletics.

The Mets had no such luck in erasing memories of recent games. Friday’s lopsided loss — they trailed 14-2 entering the ninth — extended their losing streak to a season-worst seven games.

New York was just swept by the Braves, and Mets manager Buck Showalter was asked if his team had a hangover effect.

“Looked like it,” Showalter said. “Didn’t pitch well, and that usually does a lot of it. And made (two) errors. It is what it is.”

The flavor of the games during the Mets’ losing streak has been all over the place, with them being outscored 51-31 in the eight games.

Both teams got discouraging injury news Friday.

Mets slugger Pete Alonso went on the 10-day injured list because of a bone bruise and sprain of his left wrist, where he got hit by a pitch Wednesday. He’s expected to be out three-to-four weeks, if not longer.

Things were even worse for Pittsburgh. Starter Vince Velasquez had season-ending elbow surgery after going on the injury list, trying to come back, and then going on the IL again.

On Saturday, New York right-hander Kodai Senga (5-3, 3.75 ERA) is expected to start opposite Pittsburgh right-hander Johan Oviedo (3-4, 4.29).

Senga, who has never faced the Pirates, might be happy to get onto a different schedule.

His last time out, Sunday against Toronto, Senga was pitching on four days’ rest for the first time. He gave up four runs and four hits in 2 2/3 innings, with five walks and three strikeouts. He did not get a decision.

Senga, who pitched weekly in Japan, said through an interpreter that he felt fine physically, but “there were a lot of times when their lineup would be taking a lot of my off-speed offerings.”

Oviedo seemed headed to victory his last time out, on Monday against Oakland, after giving up three runs, two earned, in seven innings, but he ended up without a decision in a seesaw game won by the Athletics 5-4.

Against the Mets, Oviedo has taken some lumps. He is 0-2 with a 10.24 ERA in three career starts covering just 9 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

An accomplished front-end starter will go against a pitcher who has the ability to get there one day when the Philadelphia Phillies play host to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola (5-4, 4.30 ERA) will oppose against Dodgers rookie right-hander Bobby Miller (2-0, 1.06) when the teams meet in the middle game of a three-game series. The Phillies have won six straight games.

Philadelphia took the series opener 5-4 in dramatic fashion on Friday when Kyle Schwarber hit a game-ending home run with two outs in the ninth inning. Schwarber reached base four times, adding a triple and two walks in addition to his 17th homer.

Nola has been far from his best this season, one year after he went 11-13 with a 3.25 ERA and had an major-league-best 8.10 strikeout-to-walk ratio while finishing fourth in the National League Cy Young Award race.

He is coming off a dominating start against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up a three-run home run to Nick Maton following a walk and an error.

It was the fourth time Nola has taken a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his career. He struck out 12, walked three and yielded just the three unearned runs on one hit in seven innings.

“I thought he was good all night,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after Nola showed slightly improved velocity. “He lost the zone a couple of times, but I thought his stuff was really good. The velocity was good. The curveball was good — except the one to Maton. But I thought he was really good.”

Nola has pitched well in spurts this season, like his April 28 start against the Houston Astros when he looked more like his former self by giving up one run on three hits over eight innings. However, he followed that by allowing four runs in 6 1/3 innings on the road against the Dodgers in a no-decision on May 3. Philadelphia lost that game 10-6.

In eight career starts against the Dodgers, Nola is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.

Miller made his major league debut for the Dodgers on May 23 and has logged just three career starts. He has looked impressive in the early going, not allowing more than one run in any outing.

Miller is coming off a six-inning no-decision against the New York Yankees on Sunday when he did not allow a run, gave up just one hit and had seven strikeouts. Both of his walks came in the first inning on a day when he threw 86 pitches.

“How much do I want to push him in his (seventh) start this year?” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, adding in Miller’s four starts at Triple-A Oklahoma City. “Knowing the fact that we’ve got a lot of baseball left, that played into the calculus.”

Blessed with a 100 mph fastball, Miller looks every bit the first-round draft pick he was, selected by the Dodgers in 2020.

“I felt great,” Miller said. “I definitely felt like I could’ve gone longer, but that first inning, get rid of those two walks and I’d be going into the seventh.”

Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back home runs for the Dodgers in the seventh inning on Friday. Los Angeles has lost three of four games during the current road trip, with all three losses coming in walk-off fashion.

–Field Level Media

After appreciating his excellent big-league debut, the Cincinnati Reds will see what rookie pitcher Andrew Abbott can do for an encore.

Abbott (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will face the host Cardinals on Saturday in the middle game of a three-game series. He threw six scoreless innings on one hit and four walks during a 2-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday.

“It probably took him until the second or third to really settle in, and once he did that, he was really in command the rest of the game and used all his pitches,” Reds manager David Bell said.

Abbott threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 23 batters he faced. He kept the Brewers off balance with a four-pitch mix, and he reached 95 mph with his fastball while striking out six batters.

“I felt really good, honestly, too,” Abbott said. “I had another day of rest because I was supposed to go Sunday (for Triple-A Louisville). Just seeing the crowd, taking it all in, stuff definitely gets your adrenaline pumping so you throw a little bit harder than normal.”

The Cardinals opened the series with a 7-4 victory Friday night for their second straight victory. The Reds lost their second straight game.

St. Louis will start Miles Mikolas (4-2, 3.74 ERA), who has allowed three runs or fewer in 10 straight starts and two earned runs or fewer in seven of them.

Mikolas took a 2-1 loss at Pittsburgh in his last start. He allowed the two runs on 10 hits in five innings but fell victim to his team’s recent power outage.

“Once we right the ship, we have to hope we’re not too far back,” Mikolas said. “Hate to rely on another 17-game winning streak to get into the playoffs. That’s always a possibility with players of this caliber. For the people out there getting upset — that’s understandable. I wouldn’t count us out.

“It’s time to see who wants it, who wants to step up and be a leader and start getting the job done.”

Mikolas won his previous start against the Reds 2-1 at Cincinnati on May 25. He blanked the Reds for seven innings on five hits while striking out five and walking nobody.

He is 4-5 with a 5.02 ERA in 17 career appearances against the Reds, including 15 starts.

The Reds adjusted their pitching staff for this series. They recalled Ricky Karcher and Joel Kuhnel from Triple-A Louisville, optioned Eduardo Salazar to Louisville, and put Graham Ashcraft (left calf contusion) on the 15-day injured list.

“I want to see how (Karcher) does here because he has major league stuff,” Bell said. “Sometimes certain players will step up at this level and just be better here.”

Cincinnati is also expected to activate outfielder TJ Friedl (left hamstring strain) in time for Saturday’s game.

The Cardinals activated outfielder Dylan Carlson from the injured list as expected Friday and optioned Juan Yepez to Triple-A Memphis. Carlson was 0-for-2 with two walks in the opener.

“Never a good time to get injured. Glad the process is over,” Carlson told Bally Sports Midwest. “It’s a long, tedious process. Just put that behind me, keep moving forward and get back to playing some baseball.”

–Field Level Media

Only three teams in the American League have a worse record than the Chicago White Sox.

However, the White Sox are confident a recent hot stretch — and a spate of exciting wins at home — represents who they really are as the summer approaches.

The White Sox will try to continue their surge on Saturday afternoon when they play host to the Miami Marlins in the middle game of a three-game interleague series.

Michael Kopech (3-5, 4.33 ERA) is scheduled to start for the White Sox against Sandy Alcantara (2-5, 5.07) in a battle of right-handers.

The White Sox earned another walk-off win on Friday in the series opener, when Luis Robert Jr. laced the game-winning single in the ninth inning of a 2-1 victory.

The win was the sixth in seven games for the White Sox. Chicago is 21-15 since May 1, the best record in the division and the fourth-best mark in the American League.

The White Sox are also showing a flair for the dramatic at home.

Chicago’s past three home games ended with walk-off victories, and all three came in vastly different ways. Yoan Moncada scored on a wild pitch in the 10th inning of a 2-1 win over Detroit on June 3, one day before Jake Burger hit a ninth-inning grand slam to vault the hosts to a 6-2 win over the Tigers.

The White Sox’s six walk-off wins this season are the most in the majors.

“We’ve been on a good stretch lately,” said Chicago’s Dylan Cease, who allowed one run over six innings on Friday. “We’ve played really well in all facets of the game. When we play like that, we’re going to be very hard to beat.”

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Marlins, who came within a victory of matching their longest winning stretch of the past 10 years.

Miami will try to start another streak behind Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner who is enduring a rough season. Alcantara allowed five runs — all in the third inning — over seven innings and didn’t factor into the decision as the Marlins beat the Oakland Athletics 7-5 on Sunday.

Outside of the third inning, Alcantara faced the minimum. He retired the first six batters he faced on 13 pitches and erased his only subsequent baserunner — Ramon Laureano, who singled leading off the sixth — by inducing a double-play grounder.

Alcantara struck out seven and walked none. It was just the third time this season he didn’t walk a batter.

“Other than that (the third inning), he pitched really good,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “After the first two innings, I thought he was going to throw a complete game on 90 pitches, the way he was throwing.”

Alcantara has never opposed the White Sox.

Kopech didn’t factor into the decision on Sunday, when he gave up two runs over seven innings in Chicago’s win over the Tigers. He has never faced the Marlins.

–Field Level Media

The Rockies started their season with two wins against the host San Diego Padres, but that was the last time Colorado looked comfortable against any of its National League West rivals.

The Padres came back and won the final two games of the opening series, and the Rockies have now dropped eight in a row and 14 of 15 against division opposition.

San Diego beat Colorado 9-6 on Friday in the opener of a three-game series at Denver.

The teams will go at it again in a matinee on Saturday. The Padres will send Ryan Weathers (1-4, 5.09 ERA) to the mound to face Kyle Freeland (4-7, 4.06) in a matchup of left-handers.

Weathers is 0-1 with a 9.69 ERA in his four career appearances (three starts) against the Rockies, all of which came in his rookie year of 2021.

On Friday, Colorado got its first look at Fernando Tatis Jr. since the 2021 season, and he came through with a home run and a double, but it was the hot-hitting Juan Soto who got things going for the Padres.

Soto followed up a career-best, five-hit game on Wednesday with a single that sparked a three-run first inning. The Padres, already a potent lineup, got Xander Bogaerts back after he missed four games due to a wrist injury.

Bogaerts said the time off helped him get close to full health.

“I’ve felt better every day since I came out of the game (on June 3),” said Bogaerts, who went 2-for-5 with two runs on Friday. “I feel good to play.”

While San Diego is humming, the Rockies are scuffling. Colorado has dropped five straight and nine of the past 11 while wearing out the bullpen. It showed Thursday when Pierce Johnson coughed up a one-run lead in the ninth in a 6-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants, and it cost the Denver native his role as the closer.

Johnson was given the ninth-inning job when Daniel Bard was away from the team to deal with anxiety. Johnson converted his first 11 save opportunities but has blown his past two.

“We’re going to take a step back with Pierce, move him earlier in the game,” Colorado manager Bud Black said before the Friday game. “We’ll see how each and every game plays out.

“When Daniel went on the injured list in spring training, we had to move on the fly. We felt the best option at that time was Pierce, and Pierce delivered.”

The bullpen overall has been forced into heavy innings, and Friday didn’t help. Starter Austin Gomber got lit up early and was out of the game after four-plus innings.

Colorado hopes to get a strong outing from Freeland, who will face the Padres for the second time this season. He tossed six scoreless innings in the second game of the season to get the win. Freeland has faced San Diego 21 times in his career, 19 of those starts, going 7-6 with a 4.40 ERA.

Freeland is coming off a hard-luck loss at Kansas City on Sunday, when he gave up just two runs in seven-plus innings.

–Field Level Media