By JERRY DiPAOLA

The Tribune-Review, Greensburg (TNS)

Opening Day at PNC Park didn’t start well for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The organization missed by a minute its intended start time, 4:12 p.m. to match the local area code. That was a trivial matter compared to what followed in the Pirates’ 9-4 loss to the defending American League champion New York Yankees.

The Pirates, who are 1-5 in home openers under manager Derek Shelton, have lost six of their first eight games. The loss was the Pirates’ third in a row by a margin of five or more runs after three one-run defeats. The Yankees (5-2) have scored 62 runs, an average of nearly nine per game.

Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller pitched out of a two-on, nobody-out jam in the first inning with called third strikes on Jazz Chisholm and Paul Goldschmidt. But that was the extent of the Pirates’ good news for the day.

In the second, Keller surrendered two walks sandwiched around a double by Jasson Dominguez and a two-RBI single by Oswaldo Cabrera that turned into two bases when Oneil Cruz misplayed the baseball in center field.

By the time the top of the second inning ended, the Yankees led 2-0, and Keller had thrown 56 pitches.

The Pirates wasted leadoff singles by Joey Bart and Andrew McCutchen in the bottom of the second when Tommy Pham and Endy Rodriguez weakly grounded out and Jared Triolo flied out to center field.

Chants of “Sell the team,” erupted from the crowd of 36,893 in the third inning when the Yankees added two more runs on a two-out hit batsman followed by three consecutive singles. Meanwhile, left fielder Alexander Canario misplayed a single after he replaced Pham, who left the game with an illness, according to a Pirates announcement. The chants returned briefly in the fifth when Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who is hitting .360, was picked off first base.

Damage after three innings: three Pirates runners left in scoring position, two errors, a 4-1 deficit after Bryan Reynolds’ first home run of the season and 80 pitches off Keller’s arm.

The Yankees added three runs in the fourth when Keller allowed two more hits, hit another batter and was replaced by Joey Wentz — all after he retired the first two batters. With the bases loaded, Wentz hit Dominguez and walked Cabrera to score the second and third runs of the inning before McCutchen saved complete disaster by running down Ben Rice’s 107.9 mph fly ball near the right-field wall.

McCutchen had three singles and leads the Pirates with a .375 batting average.

Keller, who was the winning pitcher last Friday in Miami, allowed seven runs, eight hits, four walks and hit two batters while throwing 97 pitches.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge struck out twice against Keller before hitting his sixth home run of the season — a 403-foot shot — in the seventh against Tim Mayza.

Ke-Bryan Hayes’ threerun homer in the bottom of the inning came after the Yankees had seized a 9-1 lead. Hayes batted leadoff Friday, the fifth different Pirates player to do so in the first eight games.