Bartolo Colon Pitches Mets Past Pirates 5-0

Bartolo Colon carried a three-hitter into the eighth inning, and the New York Mets got home runs from David Wright and Lucas Duda in a 5-0 victory over the sloppy Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday.

Colon (4-5) struck out a season-high nine in his second consecutive win, and Wright added an RBI single during an eventful afternoon. He also stole a base, made two throwing errors and robbed Andrew McCutchen of extra bases with a diving play at third.

New York salvaged the final two games of a 4-5 homestand after firing batting coach Dave Hudgens and replacing him with minor league hitting coordinator Lamar Johnson.

The Mets improved to 13-17 at Citi Field, winning the series against Pittsburgh for their first back-to-back victories at home since a three-game streak from April 23-25. They open a season-high 11-game trip Thursday night with a five-game series in Philadelphia and play 25 of their next 33 on the road until July 4.

Pitching four days after his 41st birthday, Colon reached 2,000 strikeouts when he caught ex-Met Ike Davis looking in the sixth. The burly right-hander saved the souvenir, tossing the ball to injured Mets ace Matt Harvey in the dugout.

Colon's previous turn Friday was washed out by rain after he yielded two runs in four innings against Arizona. In his last outing that counted, he went eight innings to beat Washington 5-2 on May 17.

Colon was pulled this time after 121 pitches, his most in a decade, and Jeurys Familia got Davis to ground into an inning-ending double play with two on in the eighth.

Familia finished the six-hitter for his second major league save and first this season.

Charlie Morton (1-7) was chased in the sixth and Pittsburgh fell to 7-16 away from home with another poor day at the plate.

Duda drew a leadoff walk in the second and scored after second-string catcher Chris Stewart was unable to handle a pair of wild pitches by Morton.

Pittsburgh starter Edinson Volquez and reliever Jeanmar Gomez combined for four wild pitches with Russell Martin behind the plate in Tuesday night's 4-2 loss.

Wright had an RBI single in the third after an embarrassing defensive sequence for Pittsburgh handed Daniel Murphy a Little League triple.

Murphy hit a grounder to third, and Pedro Alvarez threw high to first for an error. Murphy took off for second but the ball caromed hard off the dugout fence to second baseman Neil Walker. He threw to second in time to get Murphy, but shortstop Jordy Mercer dropped the ball for another error that let Murphy scamper to third.

Pittsburgh appealed that Murphy never touched second base, but he was called safe.

Wright led off the sixth with his fourth home run.

The inning before, a frustrated Wright was left standing at the plate when Juan Lagares made an ill-advised attempt to steal third with two outs. Lagares tried to catch the Pirates off guard and took off while Morton still had the ball, but was thrown out easily by the pitcher.

Duda added a long, two-run shot off Bryan Morris in the eighth to make it 5-0.

NOTES: Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said reliever Jason Grilli is very close to regaining the closer job. ... Gerrit Cole (4-3) pitches for the Pirates when they begin a four-game series Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. Dan Haren (5-3) goes for Los Angeles. ... Mets C Travis d'Arnaud (concussion) was on his way back from a rehab stint with Double-A Binghamton and is expected to be activated Thursday. ... Familia singled in the eighth for his first major league hit. ... RHP Zack Wheeler (1-5) starts Thursday night against Philadelphia rookie David Buchanan (1-0). ... Thousands of school children filled the third-base stands Wednesday morning for Dinosaur Education Day at Citi Field.

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