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. 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.
While Skenes’ ERA managed to dip, so did the total in his bank account.
“Jeez, I was playing for free tonight. It was fun,” Skenes joked about the tickets he rounded up for 35 friends and family members. “Today was kind of a family get-together. It was all my mom’s brothers and my dad’s brother and their families are all here, which is cool. Hasn’t happened for a while, so cool to be able to share that with them.”
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.
“He’s a great pitcher. He’s got good stuff,” Dodgers outfielder Michael Conforto said of Skenes after he struck out twice against the right-hander and three times on the night. “He had his heater working. He was locating. He’s been adding some track to that sinker. Sweeper, curveball, seemed like he had it all working. Just tip your cap.”
In Skenes’ outing at Dodger Stadium 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.
“As the game moved on, the second inning, third inning, I did start feeling my stuff was becoming better,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “However, I couldn’t grind through and get myself out of trouble.”
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.
“Gave up a couple two-out base hits for some runs, which is uncharacteristic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think tonight overall he just typically has great command and tonight he just wasn’t as pinpoint.”
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 for 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,” Roberts said. “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.
“This is where baseball gets really fun, I think, to find different ways to get them out,” Skenes said. “Ohtani saw all of my pitches today. Freddie I think saw all of my pitches today. I’m not hiding anything from them, and they’re not hiding anything from me. I’ve seen how they attack me, and they’ve seen how I attack them. That’s what makes baseball really fun, is the cat-and-mouse game.”
A vicious guard dog last October, the Dodgers now have four loses in their past five games with five more dates left on the homestand.
“It’s been difficult,” Roberts said. “Certain nights we just can’t put a complete ballgame together. Starting pitching, the hitting, timely hitting, all that stuff just hasn’t been synced up. We’re not too far away. We’re gonna hit. Some guys are scuffling right now, but they’ll find their way.”
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