Gee whiz: Mets ace stymies Pirates

Associated Press

pittsburgh

Although rookie Dillon Gee may not be perfect his record still is.

Gee remained undefeated, Jose Reyes homered among his three hits and the New York Mets won for the fifth time in six games, 8-1 over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Gee became the first Mets’ rookie starter to improve to 7-0, and New York has won all nine of his starts. He allowed one run and eight hits in a career-high eight innings with no walks and five strikeouts.

“He really pitched great again,” Mets manager Terry Collins said before deadpanning, “but we finally figured out a flaw: He can’t bunt. We’ve got to work on that.”

Gee bunting into a force play during New York’s five-run fourth inning aside, he won his fifth straight outing and is the majors’ first rookie starter to open 7-0 since 2006, when Jered Weaver started 9-0 for the Los Angeles Angels.

Gee has allowed one earned run or less in three of his past five starts and has allowed only one run over his past two outings combined.

“I can’t say enough good things about the job he’s done on that mound, controlling his emotions, keeping himself in the game and just making pitches,” Collins said. “He’s been really amazing to watch.”

Gee also beat the Pirates on May 30 in New York.

“I was hoping we would adjust better this time,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s 7-0 now. He got us twice. He’s in a good place right now. You’re going to have to beat him by stretching at-bats out and we weren’t able to do that.”

Reyes and Josh Thole went 3 for 5, and Angel Pagan had two hits and scored twice for New York.

The Pirates’ Charlie Morton had his worst start of the season — though he was the victim of some infield hits, shoddy defense and bad bounces. Morton (6-3) lasted a season-low four-plus innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) and nine hits.

“Charlie didn’t throw ball that bad,” Pirates second baseman Neil Walker said. “We made a couple of errors to put some runners in scoring position and that made it tougher on him. You just have to mark it down as a bad day for us.”