The tying and winning ninth-inning hits came from a pair of players who were designated for assignment within the past five weeks. The power came from an offseason waiver claim and a 22-year-old with less than 60 games of experience above Single-A.

Two of the primary protagonists responsible for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ improbable win Sunday aren’t far removed from playing independent minor league ball.

Somehow, this ragtag, last-place operation collectively erased a five-run first-inning deficit for a 6-5 victory at the New York Mets on Sunday. The Pirates (34-56) enter the All-Star break with an inspiring win that lifted them to a split of a four-game series against the NL East leaders.

“There’s a lot of teams that, (down) 5-0, last day of the first half, you’re not going to see that effort,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said during a video conference with media. “These guys continued to get after it, and I applaud them for it.”

A week and a half ago, few in Pittsburgh had heard of John Nogowski. Rodolfo Castro remained an intriguing but mostly unknown young prospect playing in Altoona.

By Sunday evening, Nogowski was capping off a debut week for the Pirates in which he hit .500 in 28 at-bats by driving in the tying run and scoring the winning run against New York closer Edwin Diaz. And for Castro’s part, he homered for the second and third times during the series.

Journeymen veterans Michael Perez (solo home run), Wilmer Difo (winning RBI, run scored) and Chase De Jong (four scoreless innings after his rocky first inning) also played key roles.

“There’s so much talent in baseball (that) it’s hard to find a job,” said Nogowski, who began the month in limbo after being DFA’d by the St. Louis Cardinals. “For some guys, it takes a couple teams to find your landing spot. Right time, right place.

“One of the biggest things that’s stood out to me since I got here, just the fight that we have, one through nine.”

The fight began down 5-0 after an inning and it ended against Diaz, who had blown only one of his previous 20 save opportunities.

Diaz struck out the final two batters of the eighth with the bases loaded to preserve New York’s lead. But he allowed a one-out double to Kevin Newman in the ninth, and, after a groundout, Nogowski struck a line-drive single to tie the game.

Ben Gamel and Difo followed with singles.

Castro has three homers in 16 MLB at-bats. All three came during the weekend series.

An infielder who was playing third base Sunday, Castro became the youngest player to homer twice in a game for the Pirates since Aramis Ramirez in 2000.

His blasts Sunday came in consecutive innings off Jared Eickoff and Jeurys Familia, respectively – the latter with Difo aboard.

“Hitting a home run on the first hit in the big leagues, that was already a dream,” Castro said through a team interpreter. “And literally (Saturday) night, I was just going through the game mentally and just thinking about the game and then I started dreaming some more. I was like, ‘Wow, you can imagine if my second hit in the big leagues is a home run?’ And then to see today those results come out the way they did, I mean, I am just mind-blown.”

Castro’s second shot pulled the Pirates to within a run after the Mets long had appeared in control. But De Jong settled in after a first inning in which he allowed three extra-base hits, including two home runs, and two walks to allow only two baserunners over the next four innings.

Austin Davis, Chris Stratton, David Bednar and Rodriguez each followed with a scoreless inning.

The Pirates orchestrated their comeback against a collection of relievers because the Mets went with a “bullpen game” in lieu of taxing Cy Young frontrunner Jacob deGrom on three days rest.

The victory was the Pirates’ second in 53 games this season in which they trailed after eight innings.

“This group doesn’t give up,” Shelton said. “One of the things I told them today when I talked to them before the game, just for the pre-break meeting, was the one thing I really admire at them is they come out every day to play and they get after people, and they showed it today.”

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