NEW YORK — Wilmer Difo's tiebreaking single in the ninth inning capped Pittsburgh's biggest comeback of the season, and the Pirates rallied from an early five-run deficit to beat the New York Mets 6-5 Sunday.

“That's a helluva way to end the first half,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We go down 5-0 and they battled their (rear ends) off for the rest of the game. It was really cool to see.”

The NL East-leading Mets — atop their division at the All-Star Break for the first time since 2007 — jumped out to a 5-0 lead against Chase De Jong in the first on a two-run homer by Francisco Lindor and a three-run shot by Michael Conforto.

The Pirates began inching back via the long ball in the fifth, when Rodolfo Castro and Michael Perez hit back-to-back solo home runs.

Castro hit a two-run homer in the sixth — per Elias, he is the first player since Kyle Higashioka in 2018 to homer for each of his first three big league hits — and helped keep the Pirates within a run by spearing a line drive by Brandon Nimmo in the seventh and firing to first to double up Luis Guillorme.

“It's a huge dream come true and to see the dream flourish even more and get even deeper — oh my gosh, I feel amazing,” a grinning Castro said through an interpreter.

Closer Edwin Diaz, the fifth pitcher used by the Mets, wriggled out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth to preserve a 5-4 lead. Diaz (3-3) gave up a one-out double to Kevin Newman in the ninth before retiring Bryan Reynolds on a groundout.

But John Nogowski hit an RBI single — his 14th hit in 28 at-bats since joining the Pirates on Monday, the most by a Pittsburgh player in his first seven games with the team since at least 1901 — and Difo followed with his run-scoring hit down the third base line.

David Bednar (2-1) allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth. Richard Rodriguez worked around a leadoff single by Nimmo in the ninth to earn his 12th save.

“Twenty-seven outs, a lot can happen,” Nogowski said. “Real easy to kind of roll over there, last game before the break, you've got an unbelievable closer on the mound, great stuff. But I don't think that crossed any of our minds. Great at-bats.”

Difo and Adam Frazier had three hits for the Pirates, who are in last place in the NL Central at the All-Star Break for the first time since 2010.

De Jong allowed five runs and four hits and three walks with three strikeouts in five innings.