By his standards, Pittsburgh Pirates ace pitcher Paul Skenes was vulnerable against the Cincinnati Reds, but Skenes has a pretty high standard.
PITTSBURGH, PA − By his standards, Pittsburgh Pirates ace pitcher Paul Skenes was vulnerable against the Cincinnati Reds, but Skenes has a pretty high standard.
Even when Skenes, the presumptive National League Cy Young Award frontrunner, allowed a career-high seven hits to the Reds, it still felt like he was in control.
Sure enough, he was, and Skenes' gifted right arm allowed him to dance in and out of traffic on the bases throughout his Aug. 7 outing at PNC Park. Skenes had just one clean inning in the six that he tossed against Cincinnati, but still managed to blank the Reds and the Pirates won going away, 7-0. A crowd of 20,339 attended.
Skenes improved his standing in the ongoing Cy Young race as his ERA dipped below two, falling from 2.02 to 1.94 by the end of his seventh win of 2025 (7-8). He had eight strikeouts and no walks.
On a night when NL Wild Card chasers, the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, were both idle, the Reds dropped back to 3.5 games behind New York, which holds the third wild card spot.
The Pirates got to Reds starter Brady Singer in a 35-pitch first inning, and Pittsburgh plated three runs. Bryan Reynolds opened the scoring with a solo home run to left field, and Jared Triolo had a two-run single to make it 3-0. That was plenty for Skenes and the Pirates' bullpen to work with, and they continued to build on their lead throughout the night.
Singer lasted three and 2/3 innings. He was charged with four earned runs, six hits and four walks against two strikeouts.
After Reds starters Zack Littell and Andrew Abbott combined for 13 and 2/3 innings on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6, the Cincinnati relievers taxed by back-to-back bullpen games earlier in the week appeared to be back in line with a more normal workload.
But the bullpen was taxed again in the series opener against the Pirates. Reds manager Terry Francona deployed four relievers (Sam Moll, Luis Mey, Brent Suter and Yosver Zulueta) with Zulueta eating the final two innings.
The Enquirer will update this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Pirates' Paul Skenes allowed career-high seven hits to Reds and won
Category: Baseball
