Maikel Garcia (hand) sits once again on Thursday

Abreu was given three days off to take care of a personal matter. The right-hander will be a bridge to closer Josh Hader, but he has not been effective whatsoever in 2026 as seen in a 6.39 ERA and 1.82 WHIP over his 25 1/3 innings.

Gordon was only up for one day, and gets the boot with Bryan Abreu coming off the restricted list in a corresponding move. Gordon is likely to be an up-and-down arm throughout the 2026 campaign.

Lowe’s OBP has been tumbling in recent weeks, but he’s still collecting homers, having added five to his total this month. He’s tied for 10th in the league with 19 homers, and he’s one of just nine players with 50 runs scored and RBI. That’s at the 81-game mark, so he’s currently on pace for 100 runs scored and 102 RBI. Last year, Bryan Reynolds led the Pirates with 68 runs scored and 73 RBI. The last time any Pirate hit the century mark in either category was when Josh Bell drove in 116 runs in 2019.

Chandler gave up nine hard-hit balls, walked three and struck out four yet outdueled Bryce Miller, who allowed three hard-hit balls, walked none and struck out 11. Both gave up five hits, but while two of Miller’s were homers, Chandler’s produced only six total bases. It’s the fourth straight outing in which Chandler has allowed two runs or fewer. It sure would be nice to see him improve on his 21 percent strikeout rate, 13 percent walk rate and 35 percent groundball rate, but he’s getting the job done of late. He’s due to pitch in Philadelphia next week.

It wasn’t a save, since the Pirates scored twice in the bottom of the eighth, but it was a positive outing for Soto, who had allowed seven runs — six earned — over four innings in his previous five appearances. He retired JP Crawford, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez without incident today.

Miller gave up just three hard-hit balls, but two of those were homers that accounted for all three runs. Since coming off the injured list, Miller has allowed seven homers but only 10 runs in 45 2/3 innings. His K/BB is an outstanding 54/5, and there just aren’t more than a handful of starters throwing better than he is right now. He’ll likely face the Angels on Tuesday.

The steal was a nice piece of work. Jake Mangum was looking to bunt him to third after his double leading off the eighth, and since that drew third baseman JP Crawford way off the bag, Davis just took the base without the bunt. Davis’s homer off Bryce Miller was his sixth of the year. He’s still batting just .148/.247/.319, and while the Pirates did show a certain level of commitment to him when they traded Joey Bart to the Braves last week, they clearly prefer Endy Rodríguez as their primary catcher right now.

Durbin was removed from Wednesday’s game after suffering a subluxation on his left pinky. The 26-year-old is good to go for the series opener against New York and will hit in the middle of the lineup against Cam Schlittler and the Yankees’ bullpen.

Yoho gets the boot with Abner Uribe back with Milwaukee. It comes after Yoho allowed three runs over an inning of work during Wednesday’s game, but it seems pretty likely that the 26-year-old hurler will get another chance to help the Brew Crew bullpen before the end of the year.

Duarte takes the roster spot of David Peterson after Peterson was traded to the Cubs. There’s a good chance this is a very short stint for the 29-year-old, as the Mets are expected to call up Zach Thornton to start Friday’s game to replace Peterson in the rotation.