LOS ANGELES — With cleats that were shades of Charlie Brown, right-hander Paul Skenes made sure it was the Pittsburgh Pirates who had the last laugh on the Dodgers.
Atop his yellow spikes with black jagged trim, Skenes won a pitchers’ duel with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the Pirates walked away with a 3-0 victory in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
Originally lined up to face the Angels on Thursday, Skenes’ schedule was adjusted to have him face the Dodgers on Friday instead and the plan worked to perfection. While his family and friends watched from a suite, the 22-year-old El Toro High product went 6⅓ scoreless innings with nine strikeouts to get his revenge after losing a start here last season.
His 108 pitches were a career high and in a single night he moved atop the National League pecking order among pitchers while racing past Yamamoto, who entered on an 18-inning scoreless streak.
In that outing last August, it was Gavin Lux who gave Skenes fits with two hits and three RBIs. Long gone in a trade to the Cincinnati Reds in the offseason, the Dodgers had nobody to fill the Lux role this time as the defending World Series champions lost for the fourth time in five games.
The Dodgers are now 8-10 since opening the season with eight consecutive victories and even their best starter was no match for the best arm on the Pirates.
Yamamoto gave up three runs (one earned) on five hits over five innings, but he walked a season-high four, including three over the first two innings. And he failed to catch a break from his defense when a Max Muncy throwing error from third base led to Pittsburgh’s two-run fifth inning.
Yamamoto’s scoreless streak was gone after four batters when the Pirates cashed in a leadoff walk to Oneil Cruz with a two-out RBI single from Emmanuel Valdez.
The Dodgers were poised to tie the score in the fourth when Freddie Freeman hit a leadoff triple that was aided by a misplay in the corner from Pirates right fielder Bryan Reynolds. But Teoscar Hernandez grounded out to third, keeping Freeman in place. After Tommy Edman struck out, Will Smith flew out to right to end the threat.
In the fifth inning, Henry Davis led off the Pirates with a ground ball down the third base line that Muncy backhanded but misfired to Freeman at first base. Davis scored on a rocket single at 117.6 mph from Cruz. Ke’Bryan Hayes added a two-out single for a 3-0 lead.
Still without a run allowed through six innings and 103 pitches, Skenes returned for the seventh to strike out Smith, his ninth of the night, before he was replaced by left-hander Ryan Borucki.
“There’s real velocity so the fastball is really difficult to time up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “And the splinker thing he throws, it’s just hard to barrel. He’s just got plus-plus stuff.”
Skenes’ scoreless outing was his first of the season, although he did not give up a single unearned run in an April 2 start against the Tampa Bay Rays when he went seven innings.
While Yamamoto failed to deliver star power for a night, he was far from alone. The Dodgers’ top-of-the-order trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went 2 for 12, with Freeman getting the only hits. Ohtani’s 0-for-4 night left him 1 for 16 over his past four games.
More to come on this story.
