Pittsburgh Pirates fans had plenty to cheer about Wednesday night as ace Paul Skenes delivered a masterful performance at Chase Field, leading his team to a tight 1-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. In what might be the best start of his young career, Skenes matched a career-high with eight innings of shutdown baseball, allowing just two hits while striking out seven without issuing a single walk. The dominant outing lowered his ERA against the National League West to an eye-popping 0.88 over eight starts since last season—the best mark in all of Major League Baseball.
The only run Skenes needed came early, when Brandon Lowe crushed a 435-foot solo home run to dead center field in the top of the first inning off Diamondbacks starter Michael Soroka. It was Lowe's ninth homer of the season—remarkably, more than the entire Pirates second base corps managed all of last year combined. That early 1-0 lead proved more than enough for Skenes, who faced his only real threat in the fifth inning when Arizona put two runners on with one out. True to form, the 22-year-old phenom calmly escaped the jam, then struck out the side in order in the eighth to punctuate his gem.
The night also belonged to Bryan Reynolds, who singled in each of his first two at-bats to reach the 1,000-hit milestone for his career. Reynolds now joins an elite fraternity of Pirates legends—Roberto Clemente, Andrew McCutchen, Dave Parker, and Willie Stargell—as one of only five players in franchise history to amass at least 1,000 hits, 200 doubles, and 140 home runs. It's a testament to the consistency and power that have made him a cornerstone of the Pirates' lineup.
Elsewhere in the box score, Konnor Griffin extended his hitting streak to eight games with a single in the seventh inning, while Spencer Horwitz notched his first career triple in the second. With Skenes now 3-0 and sporting a 0.69 ERA in four career starts against Arizona, the Pirates (20-17) continue to build momentum in a competitive NL Central race. Next up, right-hander Mitch Keller takes the mound as Pittsburgh looks to keep the good times rolling.