PITTSBURGH — Buck Showalter turned to the oldest trick in a manager’s playbook in an attempt to extract results from his underperforming team.

After the Mets lost for a seventh straight game on Friday, Showalter held a closed-door meeting, during which he stated the obvious: the team needed to play better.

According to a person who was in the room, players were urged to “dig down deep” and find “another level of competitiveness.”

Maybe Showalter’s words resonated on Saturday or maybe the Mets were just fortunate enough to have Kodai Senga pitching and due for a rebound after the clunker he produced in his last start.

This one adhered to the offseason blueprint: Senga rolled into the late innings without much resistance and the bullpen held, allowing the Mets to snap their longest losing streak in four years with a 5-1 victory over the Pirates at PNC Park.

In some regards, the Mets were an eyesore defensively — they committed three errors and have five over their past two games — but Brandon Nimmo helped tilt the equation with two fielding gems, both times robbing Connor Joe.

Senga fired a two-hitter over seven innings, allowing one unearned run. The right-hander struck out six and walked four, helping the Mets to exhale after Justin Verlander and Tylor Megill gave them short, ineffective performances Thursday and Friday.

The Mets had allowed 27 combined runs in their previous two games. Senga was coming off an outing last Sunday, when he got knocked out in the third inning against the Blue Jays after he gave up four runs.

“Not an ideal start last time, and with the team being in a bit of a slump I was determined to stop the losing streak,” Senga said through his interpreter.

David Robertson and Adam Ottavino combined to pitch the final two innings, giving up no runs, on a day when the Mets’ pitchers allowed only three hits.

Mark Canha put the Mets ahead with a two-run double in the seventh inning and Francisco Alvarez’s homer in the eighth against Colin Holderman — the reliever the Mets traded to the Pirates last summer for Daniel Vogelbach — extended the lead to 4-1. The homer was the rookie’s 12th, tying him with Francisco Lindor for second place on the Mets, behind injured Pete Alonso who leads MLB with 22. Canha also hit an RBI double in the ninth that gave the Mets (31-34) their final run.

“We have still got a lot of work to do and that is important to remember,” Canha said.

Nimmo’s RBI single against Johan Oviedo gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the third inning.

Tommy Pham, who entered play 8-for-21 (.381) with 12 RBIs over his previous 12 games, continued his sizzling play with a leadoff double, and Nimmo delivered with two outs for his 26th RBI of the season.

Nimmo’s leaping catch at the center-field fence prevented the Pirates from clearing the bases in the third inning. Senga had walked the bases loaded with two outs before Joe hit a shot to center. Nimmo tracked it to the fence and grabbed the ball on a leap.

Nimmo also extended for a diving catch in left-center to rob Joe of a hit for the final out in the fifth.

“It seems like every time I pitch, [Nimmo] makes amazing catches for me,” Senga said. “I have a lot of trust in the outfield there and at this point sometimes I get hit and, ‘Oh, no.’ But at some point, some part of my brain is thinking, ‘I think maybe he is going to catch it.’ ”

Two defensive miscues helped the Pirates tie it 1-1 in the fourth. Luis Guillorme, starting at shortstop to give Lindor a break, mishandled Canha’s throw from first base on a force play, giving the Pirates runners on the corners. The ensuing batter, Ji Hwan Bae, hit a grounder to second that Jeff McNeil booted as Jack Suwinski scored.

The Mets had committed two errors a night earlier in their ugly loss to the Pirates. Included was a double-play grounder that Lindor flubbed, setting up a big inning for the Pirates.

On Saturday, the Mets committed their third error of the game in the sixth inning, when Canha, starting for the third time at first base in Alonso’s absence, mishandled Suwinski’s grounder. But Senga recovered to get the final two outs and keep the score tied.

Marte legged out an infield single to start the seventh inning and Guillorme drew a two-out walk to keep the inning alive before Canha blasted the two-run double that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead

“Canha makes a tough tweener error and comes back with two big hits,” Showalter said. “That’s why you trust guys like Mark, because he doesn’t let something snowball.”