It was going to be hard for Pirates’ No. 26 prospect Max Kranick to top his MLB debut when he stepped to the mound on Saturday to make his second start against the Mets.

Honestly, it was going to be tough to simply top Tyler Anderson’s two-way day in Game 1 of Pittsburgh’s seven-inning doubleheader at Citi Field.

Still, Kranick, who served as the 27th man for the twin bill, showed some more signs of promise, even as he labored through three innings against his childhood favorite team, which scored three runs off him and sent the Pirates to a 4-2 loss in Game 2. Anderson went five strong innings and hit a game-winning homer in the fifth inning of a 6-2 win, his first long ball away from his former home of Coors Field.

Kranick, who tossed five perfect innings against the Cardinals in his first Major League start, needed 32 pitches to escape a first inning in which Mets batters fouled off 11 pitches and pushed across two runs.

“Obviously, these hitters are really, really good, and they have a really good approach,” Kranick said. “So just continue to battle. I think today, that was important for me to show. I know the first inning obviously didn’t go as planned, but I think I continued to battle.”

Kranick retired the next five batters in order, including three strikeouts on a slider that was arguably his most effective weapon on Saturday. He drew seven whiffs on it and said that the pitch felt especially effective to the back foot of lefties.

But it was a righty who took Kranick deep for the Mets’ winning run. In Kranick’s first at-bat facing Pete Alonso, he was able to win a six-pitch appearance with a four-seamer inside to the 2019 Home Run Derby champion.

However, when Kranick went to the well again in the third inning after two offspeed pitches, Alsonso cranked a Statcast-projected 428-foot solo home run to left field.

“He’s a really advanced hitter and I got him with it in the first at-bat, and he looked there in the second,” Kranick said. “Got out really fast, and sometimes, you’ve got to tip your cap.”

Kranick admitted that even though he’d already made his Major League debut, he felt a few lingering nerves at Citi Field. This weekend’s series against the Mets was a “circled series” for the right-hander who grew up two hours away in Scranton, Pa., and went to almost every Sunday home game at Shea Stadium growing up.

“I think any time I take the big league mound, there are going to be butterflies,” said Kranick, who had 30-40 friends and family members in attendance on Saturday, “but yeah, today was definitely a little bit more special being here in New York, close to home, against a team I grew up liking.”

And though it didn’t turn out picture perfect in the box score, Kranick came away with more lessons to build on when he returns to Triple-A Indianapolis, which manager Derek Shelton said would happen after the doubleheader. Kranick never expected things to be as perfect as the first time out -- that’s an awfully high bar to set -- so he was able to enjoy the experience and work towards his next one, which will likely come later this season.

“I think a couple of the guys were joking around about it,” Kranick said. “That after my first one it’s only down from here, which I guess is kind of true. But no, [there was] no added pressure.”

“There are very few people that go out their very first start and go five perfect,” Shelton said, “so the fact that he had to grind through a lineup with some pretty accomplished hitters and they made him work, yeah, that's a good learning experience, and there's something he can definitely take out of this.”