PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pirates didn't look like a last-place team during a 6-0 homestand in which they outscored the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals by 43-4.
“It was special,” shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa said after a 5-0 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday. "These aren’t just wins. These are dominating wins. It’s nice. You build off the confidence of domination of home. It’s hard not to feed off that.”
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Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Isaac Mattson, right, celebrates with catcher Henry Davis, after getting the final out of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, left, celebrates with left fielder Tommy Pham, after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in a baseball game, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Tommy Pham hits an RBI single during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Tommy Pham, right, is greeted by Spencer Horwitz, left, after scoring during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Despite their season-high six-game winning streak, the Pirates are 38-50 — including 26-24 since Don Kelly was promoted from bench coach on May 8 after manager Derek Shelton was fired.
Pittsburgh was 14 games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs entering play on Wednesday. The Pirates became the first big league team since at least 1901 to score 43 runs or more and allow four runs or fewer in a six-game span. It was their first perfect homestand of six or more games since the Pirates were 7-0 against the Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers from June 28 to July 4, 2004.
The Pirates hadn't pitched three straight shutouts since June 14-16, 2015, and hadn't accomplished the feat against one team in a series since Oct. 2-3, 1976, also against the Cardinals.
Mitch Keller, Dennis Santana and Isaac Mattson combined on a six-hitter.
“It’s just a testament to how hard we’re working and the scouting that we’re going through,” said Keller, who allowed five hits in seven innings. “We just have a really good plan going in, which I think gives confidence to everybody when they know what the plan is, and when we execute it, it works.”
St. Louis hadn't been shut out in three consecutive games since Sept. 18-21, 2022, against Cincinnati and San Diego.
“The starting rotation has been phenomenal,” Kelly said. “And then the guys in the ’pen did such a great job in such a tough stretch, too, against quality teams.”
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Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Isaac Mattson, right, celebrates with catcher Henry Davis, after getting the final out of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, left, celebrates with left fielder Tommy Pham, after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in a baseball game, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Tommy Pham hits an RBI single during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Tommy Pham, right, is greeted by Spencer Horwitz, left, after scoring during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials made broad changes to childhood vaccine recommendations Monday, alarming pediatricians and other medical experts who say they will sow confusion and undermine children's health.
The overhaul is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases, down from 18 a year ago.
The changes comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising.
Here’s what to know about the changes:
Once broadly recommended, the federal government now only recommends protection against these diseases for certain children at high risk or based on individual doctor advice in what’s called “shared decision-making.”
— Flu
— Hepatitis A
— Hepatitis B
— Meningococcal disease
— Rotavirus
— RSV
— COVID-19, a change made in 2025
The following vaccines were left on the recommended-for-all list:
— Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
— Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis or whooping cough (DTaP)
— Polio
— Chickenpox
— Human papillomavirus, or HPV. But in a surprise, the guidance reduces the number of recommended vaccine doses against HPV from two or three shots to just one.
— Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type B, bacteria that despite the name isn't related to flu
— PCV or pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. Trump asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly.
HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.
However, many European countries recommend some of the vaccines the U.S. removed from its list.
The nation's large doctors' groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, say they will continue to recommend the vaccines that the Trump administration has now demoted. They said there was no new science that warranted the changes, including no signs that the former U.S. vaccine schedule harmed children.
Dr. Sean O'Leary of the AAP said the changes could increase child illness and death from preventable disease. He voiced special concern that the U.S. would no longer recommend flu vaccine for children, just as the flu season is becoming severe and after last winter's particularly harsh season.
The pediatricians' group has issued its own child vaccine recommendations. Also, states, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.
It's not yet clear. Because of the countering recommendations from pediatricians, doctor visits may not change. However, medical specialists say when the U.S. government doesn't explicitly recommend a shot, it will raise questions among parents, leading to more difficult conversations at the doctor's office.
If the changes mean fewer children are vaccinated, outbreaks that have historically been prevented by high vaccination rates could spread more widely, leading to more disease and more missed school and work.
The Trump administration said coverage will continue for families that still want the shots. Health insurers generally find vaccination a good deal, as shots are cheaper than hospitalizations, and many had previously said they'd planned to cover what was recommended last year through 2026.
AP writers Ali Swenson and Mike Stobbe contributed to this report from New York.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - A certified medical assistant holds a syringe for a flu vaccine at a clinic in Seattle, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
