Paul Skenes silences Reds as Pirates break tie in standings with NL Central rivals

When Paul Skenes attacked the Cincinnati Reds with his four-seam fastball by flirting with triple digits on four of his first five pitches, he found that their hitters were sitting on his heater.

The Reds responded with back-to-back hits against the fastball, scoring a run in the first inning. But it only provided a sense of false hope, as the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie reached into his bag of tricks and threw curveballs and changeups to disrupt their timing.

Skenes sent a message, with a sly smile: “I’ve got weapons.”

The 6-foot-6, 260-pound right-hander showcased his arsenal, recording seven strikeouts and holding the Reds to one run in six innings as the Pirates rolled to a 4-1 win Monday night before 19,951 at PNC Park.

The 2023 No. 1 overall pick reveled in revealing his full repertoire and was especially proud to put his 87.6-mph changeup on display, as Skenes called it “a fifth pitch that people don’t necessarily know about.” That’s because he rarely had to use it last year at LSU, given how hitters couldn’t touch his fastball and slider.

“We got them off the heater, got them thinking about other stuff,” said Skenes, who allowed six hits and one walk to improve to 4-0 with a 2.29 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in seven starts. “It was truly a five-pitch game. I used all five pitches. It’s definitely fun to be able to pitch like that and play a little bit more of the mind games with them.”

Where Skenes still threw a majority of four-seamers (33) and splinkers (28), he balanced it by throwing more curveballs (18), changeups (10) and sliders (seven) than opponents are accustomed to seeing. He got swings on 54 of 94 pitches, drawing 18 whiffs and 15 called strikes.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton noted the importance of Skenes locating his four-seamer at the bottom of the strike zone because it makes the secondary pitches even better.

“We know he has the ability to go up with heavy velocity,” Shelton said, “but when you’re executing the fastball down, you’re able to tunnel off the other two pitches.”

Skenes saw it the opposite way.

“I think more so it was the other pitches helping with that just because when they get into an approach where they’re trying to see a pitch up or something, then we can go to the heater down and freeze them or get a bad swing on it,” Skenes said. “That’s kind of what happened today because I was using all those other pitches.”

The win broke a third-place tie between the NL Central rivals, as the Pirates (35-37) moved a game ahead of the Reds and Chicago Cubs (both 34-38) in the division standings and a half-game out of the wild card.

After a 32-minute weather delay before the start of the game, the Reds got off to a fast start. Skenes retired the first two batters he faced in the first inning before Jeimer Candelario singled to right field, stole second base and scored when Spencer Steer smacked a 100.5-mph fastball off the base of the center field wall for a 1-0 lead.

The Pirates answered, as Andrew McCutchen drew a four-pitch leadoff walk off Carson Spiers (0-1) and Bryan Reynolds followed with a book-rule double to the North Side Notch to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Oneil Cruz drove in both with a single through shortstop, giving the Pirates a 2-1 edge.

Rowdy Tellez doubled to right field to put runners on second and third for Ke’Bryan Hayes, who drove in Cruz with a dribbler to third to make it 3-1.

The Pirates added another run on back-to-back two-out doubles in the second, with McCutchen hitting a gap shot to left-center and scoring when Reynolds hit a liner down the left field line to extend his MLB-best hitting streak to 15 games.

Elly De La Cruz doubled to left in the third, but Skenes got TJ Friedl and Jeimer Candelario looking at called third strikes on a 99-mph fastballs and Steer swinging at a 95-mph splinker to strand him.

Skenes retired the next eight batters, four by strikeout, over the next two-plus innings before De La Cruz reached on a sharp grounder to first that Tellez bobbled. Skenes got his first career pickoff, after the Pirates challenged a safe call at first and it was overturned upon review.

Steer singled to left and Jake Fraley drew a full-count walk to bring the tying run to the plate but when Tyler Stephenson made weak contact on a fastball clocked at 99.9 mph, Skenes raced toward the plate and threw him out to end the frame.

“There’s not a lot of guys that can go back to the fastball at 100 — I think the last pitch he threw was at 100,” Shelton said. “He and Yaz made a nice in-game adjustment and he was able to go back to one of his other weapons.”

The back end of the bullpen supplemented Skenes. Aroldis Chapman replaced Skenes for the seventh and hit leadoff batter Nick Martini with a pitch but later picked him off at first. Colin Holderman gave up a single to De La Cruz in the eighth but got Candelario to pop up and struck out Steer, which prompted an argument between David Bell and home plate umpire Malachi Moore that resulted in the Reds manager being ejected. David Bednar retired the side in the ninth to earn his 15th save.

But the focus afterward was on how Skenes shut down the Reds by adjusting his attack plan and relying on an arsenal that proved he’s more dangerous than just his putaway pitch.

“He shows up and he’s a pro every day,” Tellez said. “You don’t see that from a lot of young players, let alone a rookie.”