Pittsburgh Pirates' Rodolfo Castro reacts after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets at Citi Field, Sunday, July 11, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

It’s been quite an amazing week for Rodolfo Castro, who has spent most of the season with the Curve before enjoying a breakout with the Pirates.

Six games into his young major league career, Castro has three hits. All three have left the yard.

Castro enjoyed a monster game Sunday afternoon in New York, belting two home runs and driving in three to lead the Pirates to an improbable 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Mets.

“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 to The Associated Press.

Castro smacked a homer for his first big league hit Friday in New York. The two more he hit Sunday afternoon put him in the records books.

Castro is the first Pirates player in franchise history to smash a home run for each of his first three hits in the major leagues. He is the first MLB player to accomplish the feat since the New York Yankees’ Kyle Higashioka did it in July 2018, according to MLB.com and the Elias Sports Bureau.

Castro also drew a leadoff walk in the ninth inning and scored the winning run in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.

It wasn’t too long ago that Castro was wearing a Curve uniform. He was just promoted to the Pirates on Tuesday, joining a small list of players in Curve history to get called up directly to the big leagues from Double-A.

“The feeling that we are having right now — the staff, the players here, but especially myself — is special,” Curve manager Miguel Perez said about Castro. “I’m very proud of him.”

Castro made his major league debut with the Pirates on April 21, but did not record a hit while playing one game. The 22-year-old came back to Altoona when the Curve season started and batted .306 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs in 49 games.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Castro was acquired by the Pirates as an international free agent in 2015. He is ranked as the No. 22 prospect in Pirates’ farm system, according to Baseball America.

“He’s a guy who’s going to bring energy and passion to the team,” Perez said. “He did it here, he’s doing it in the big leagues.”

Castro, along with pitcher Max Kranick, serve as “motivation” for the players currently on the Curve roster trying to reach their MLB dreams, according to Perez. Kranick began the year with Altoona and made his debut with Pittsburgh on June 27.

Furthermore, Castro serves as a role model and is part of a lesson that Perez tries to bestow upon his players at the beginning of each minor league season.

“You never know. You never know who’s watching, you never know what can happen,” Perez said. “He’s a perfect example of that.”

Sunday rainout

The series finale between the Curve and Akron scheduled for Sunday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up later this season when Altoona travels to Akron, with the date and time to be determined.

Saturday recap

Akron took advantage of two costly errors from the Curve to ultimately defeat Altoona on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field, 3-2.

A throwing error in the sixth inning and a fielding error in the eighth allowed the RubberDucks to score all three of their runs on their way to victory. The Curve had 10 hits in the matchup but stranded 13 runners on base.

Altoona designated hitter Chase Murray finished the game 3-for-3 with a double and a walk. Second baseman Ji-hwan Bae went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a walk.