Pirates waste strong start by Paul Skenes, as Rays rally in 8th against Colin Holderman

Paul Skenes surrendered a home run on his first pitch, then held the Tampa Bay Rays scoreless over his next 97 as the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander went seven innings for the first time.

And it wasn’t enough to earn a decision, let alone a win.

The Rays rallied for two runs in the eighth inning to break a tie score against Colin Holderman — who hadn’t allowed an earned run in his previous nine appearances — for a 3-1 win Sunday afternoon before 29,026 at PNC Park to clinch the three-game series.

They were the first earned runs allowed by Holderman (3-1) since May 31 as the setup man entered the game with an 0.68 ERA. The 22-year-old Skenes lowered his ERA to 2.14 by allowing one run on six hits and a walk with eight strikeouts for his sixth quality start. He has allowed three runs or fewer in all eight starts and one run or fewer in five.

“It’s tough. That’s all I want to do is get in there and keep it going and give us a chance to win the ballgame,” Holderman said. “He pitched his heart out, especially in the first inning he had some traffic and just dialed it in. That speaks to his maturity, especially for his age. He did his job. At the end of the day, he covered a lot of innings and helped the bullpen out. We just didn’t get it done in the back end.”

Yandy Diaz hit the first pitch of the game, a 99.5 mph fastball that Skenes left over the middle of the plate, off the right-field foul pole for his third career leadoff home run to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. The ball had an exit velocity of 98.4 mph and carried only 347 feet.

“I saw it up in the air and thought, ‘There is no way,’ ” Skenes said. “I didn’t think he hit it very hard. I didn’t notice which way the wind was blowing or anything like that. I’m not going to say that was the only reason because he got that ball enough to hit it out, but I kind of just laughed when I saw it hit the foul pole. I was like, ‘Good for you.’ ”

Josh Lowe followed with a double to right, but Skenes recovered to get Randy Arozarena swinging at a fastball, Isaac Paredes looking at a slider for a called third strike and Richie Palacios to pop up to second.

In the bottom of the first, designated hitter Bryan Reynolds extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a grounder that bounced off the wrist of Rays third baseman Isaac Paredes. It’s the longest in one season for a Pirate since Jason Kendall’s 20-game hit streak in 2004. But Aaron Civale got Oneil Cruz and Rowdy Tellez looking at called third strikes to strand Reynolds.

After a clean second inning, Skenes started the third by getting Alex Jackson looking at a 95 mph splinker for his fifth strikeout the first time through the Rays’ batting order. Then Skenes gave up three consecutive singles, with Arozarena working a 10-pitch at-bat that included catcher Yasmani Grandal dropping a popup in foul territory before hitting a sharp grounder through short to load the bases. But Skenes escaped on Paredes’ grounder to third, where Ke’Bryan Hayes stepped on the bag and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

Reynolds started the bottom of the fourth by sending Civale’s first-pitch curveball over the Clemente Wall in right field for his 12th home run, tying the score 1-1. It was Reynolds’ third homer in four games and fifth of the month.

The Rays fouled off 23 pitches, and Skenes was at 80 through five innings after eight-pitch at-bats by Diaz and Lowe. But Skenes responded with an eight-pitch sixth that ended with Jose Siri swinging at a 99.7 mph four-seam fastball for Skenes’ seventh strikeout.

It prompted Pirates manager Derek Shelton to send Skenes out for the seventh, and he finished strong against the bottom of the Rays’ order. Skenes fielded Jonny DeLuca’s bunt, got Taylor Walls to fly out to right, then followed a 100.3 mph fastball with his fastest pitch of the game, a 101.5 mph four-seamer to strike out Jackson.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com, it was the fourth-fastest recorded pitch for a strikeout by a starter in the seventh inning or later since pitch tracking started in 2008. Only Justin Verlander has thrown it faster in such situations, doing so three times between 2010-12.

“Honestly, I kind of surprised myself a little bit,” Skenes said. “I was feeling good deep into the outing. I usually feel good deep into the outing, but I wasn’t expecting that — especially since I hadn’t seen anything that hard earlier in the game.”

Holderman relieved Skenes in the eighth, only to give up back-to-back singles to Diaz and Lowe before a sacrifice fly to center by Arozarena to give the Rays a 2-1 lead. After Holderman walked Paredes, Palacios singled to left to drive in Lowe to make it 3-1.

“Sometimes the balls are going to find holes, especially with a broken-bat single (and) a little hit-and-run, they got some momentum there in the inning,” Holderman said. “I tried shutting it down, but they made good swings.”

Rays manager Kevin Cash pulled Civale after five innings despite allowing one run on three hits and a low pitch count (61). Cash turned to relievers Garrett Cleavinger, Kevin Kelly, Jason Adam and closer Pete Fairbanks, who didn’t give up a hit over the final four innings.

“What you saw is you saw the Rays wait a day,” Shelton said. “They’ve got an elite back end. If Kevin could get to it, he was going to use them, and that’s exactly what he did. There’s not many places that the starter comes out after 61 pitches and is really efficient. … On the flip side of that, we have to create more opportunities. We did in the eighth.”

Andrew McCutchen drew a pinch-hit walk off Adam to start the eighth, but Nick Gonzales struck out and Hayes hit into what appeared to be an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. The Pirates challenged the call, asserting Palacios didn’t touch second base on the turn. It was overturned, and Reynolds drew a walk to put runners on first and second but Oneil Cruz grounded out to second to end the rally.

Kyle Nicolas retired the Rays in order in the ninth, but Fairbanks got Connor Joe to ground out to third, Edward Olivares to pop up to first and struck out Jared Triolo to end the game.

It wasn’t the outcome Skenes deserved as he delivered his deepest start and furthered his All-Star candidacy. Skenes has 61 strikeouts against eight walks to become the only National League pitcher since 1901 to record 60-plus strikeouts and fewer than 10 walks in his first eight career starts. Over his past three starts, he has 23 strikeouts against two walks for an 0.93 ERA.

“He pitched great,” Reynolds said. “We just didn’t score for him.”