PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes didn’t have the cleanest start on Thursday night.
Yet the Pirates’ ace right-hander was able to pitch six scoreless innings to lead his team to a 7-0 victory over the Reds in the opener of a four-game series at PNC Park.
The Reds got seven hits off Skenes, the most he has allowed in 47 career starts. Yet Cincinnati was hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position against Skenes, left six runners on base in the first six innings and never got a runner to third base.
“He’s got that knack. He’s got elite stuff, but when he gets in trouble, he’s able to go to a lot of different things to get out of the inning, to be able to get punchouts or induce double plays,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said of Skenes. “He’s got that feel of a pitcher. He has power stuff, but he’s a pitcher, and he’s able to use it to induce a double play or go for the punchout when he needs it. There aren’t many like him.”
Skenes enjoys the challenge of pitching with runners in scoring position. He has held opponents to a .175 batting average in those situations this season.
“Yeah, that’s where you see what you’re made of. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Skenes said. “I think every time you go out there, you see what you’re made of. Sometimes, when you get that external pressure rather than internal pressure, I guess. If I’m pitching out of the windup, it’s all internal pressure, however you want to call it, but you don’t have a lot of room for error there. So [you] just see what you’re made of.”
Skenes was coming off a road loss against the Rockies in which he gave up four runs in five innings last Saturday. However, he lowered his MLB-leading ERA from 2.02 to 1.94 on Thursday and ran his scoreless innings streak against the Reds to 22.
Reds manager Terry Francona saw Skenes pitch in person for the first time. Not surprisingly, he was impressed, especially with how Skenes was able to bear down in tough spots.
“I’d seen enough of him on TV to know you have your hands full. We knew that,” Francona said. “But I actually thought our guys did a pretty good job. We didn’t chase him around. By that, I mean we didn’t try to follow every pitch and got a little stubborn and had some hits. Like a really good pitcher, he made really good pitches when he needed to.”
Cam Sanders, Ryan Borucki and Kyle Nicolas each pitched one inning to complete the nine-hit shutout.
Skenes has not allowed a run in his last five home starts, and his scoreless streak on the shores of the Allegheny River is 27 2/3 innings.
“I don’t know,” Skenes said when asked why he has been so successful at PNC Park. “Sleeping in my own bed? I don’t know what it is, I really don’t.”
Bryan Reynolds hit a solo home run in the first, and Jared Triolo had a two-run single later in the inning off Brady Singer (9-9) as the Pirates took a quick 3-0 lead. Henry Davis’ two-run shot, his first home run since June 7, pushed the Pirates’ lead to 7-0 in the seventh inning.
Reynolds, Triolo and Davis each had two of the Pirates’ 10 hits. Andrew McCutchen walked four times to tie his career high.
The Pirates (50-66) had lost four of their previous six games.
