'I was playing for free tonight': Back home in LA, Skenes dominates Dodgers

LOS ANGELES -- The eyes of the baseball world were on Dodger Stadium on Friday night, where two of the game’s premier arms were going up against each other. And Paul Skenes, for his part, more than lived up to the hype in outmatching Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Skenes was about as impressive as he’s been all year, hurling 6 1/3 scoreless innings and recording a season high with nine strikeouts in the Pirates’ 3-0 win to open the series. He allowed five hits and issued no walks to keep a difficult Dodgers lineup at bay, his most dominant showing in three career starts against Los Angeles.

"Obviously a challenging lineup, one of the best lineups in the game,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I thought Paul was really good. Then, our bullpen, we got into some pretty good matchups and they did a really good job. But it kind of started with what Paul did.”

Although Yamamoto didn’t have his best stuff with a season-high four walks issued, offense still proved difficult to come by for much of the night -- all the more reason for Skenes to be on top of his game. The Pirates scored once in the first inning, but from the second through the fourth, the two starters traded zeroes, until Pittsburgh broke through for another two runs off Yamamoto in the fifth. The Pirates are the first team to tally more than two runs against Yamamoto this season.

Skenes, meanwhile, masterfully navigated through L.A.’s order, the five hits scattered such that there weren’t many real threats. The Dodgers never had more than one baserunner on at a time against him. Only one made it as far as third, Freddie Freeman advancing there on a fielding error in right by Bryan Reynolds to open the bottom of the fourth. Skenes stranded Freeman by inducing a soft grounder to third base from Teoscar Hernández, striking out Tommy Edman and retiring Will Smith on a flyout.

On any night, Skenes’ extensive pitch mix varies wildly. On Friday, the most noticeable change was how much his curveball factored in. He threw a total of 16, good for 15 percent of his pitches; previously, the most he’d thrown in a start this season was six. On a night when Skenes felt that his four-seamer command was lacking, being able to call on the curve more helped a lot.

"[We go with] the hot hand,” said catcher Henry Davis. “What's coming out well? You can't really gameplan it. When you've got [what] feels like 10 pitches, which three are rocking for this at-bat? Just go with it at 'em and see what would play well off it.”

Even with a largely stress-free night, it was something of a surprise when Skenes, who’d tied a season high with 103 pitches through six innings, headed back to the mound to start the seventh -- and Shelton shared postgame that Smith was Skenes’ final batter no matter what. But Skenes needed just five pitches to pick up one final strikeout, setting Smith down swinging at a splinker. Skenes’ 108 pitches mark a career high for him in the Majors, though he passed that on several occasions while pitching for LSU.

"I know this is never going to happen, but I really do feel like I'm built and conditioned to throw, 140, 150,” said Skenes. “I know that happens in college, doesn't happen in the big leagues anymore. So I'm not going to say no when they ask if I'm good to face another hitter or go back out there for another inning.”

For Skenes, who grew up in Lake Forest, Calif. (just down the road in Orange County), Dodger Stadium starts are an opportunity to pitch in front of a large contingent of family and friends, with a suite full of an estimated 35 supporters there for him on Friday. But these results were much better than the first time around. His start at Chavez Ravine on Aug. 10 was the only time he allowed four runs all last year.

"I was playing for free tonight,” said Skenes. “It was fun. I'll go up there and see them here in a minute. Today, actually, was kind of a family get-together. It was all my mom's brothers, my dad's brother and their families are all here, which is cool. It hasn't happened for a while, so cool to be able to share that with them.”