The recent rough stretch for the Los Angeles Dodgers continued as they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 in the highly-anticipated Paul Skenes versus Yoshinobu Yamamoto matchup.
The pitcher’s duel did not disappoint as both pitchers turned in solid outings, but it was Skenes who took it to the next step and completely shut down L.A.
Yamamoto started his night off without his command and battled throughout the game. However, a leadoff walk from Oneil Cruz, a stolen base and single gave the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.
With the Pirates taking a 1-0 lead into the fifth, Henry Davis reached on an error from Max Muncy. That was followed by a single from Cruz that made it a 2-0 game. Another pair of singles, this time from Andrew McCutchen and Ke’Bryan Hayes, made it a 3-0 Pirates’ lead.
Yamamoto’s night came to an end after that frame, having gone five innings with three runs allowed on five hits, but only one of the runs was earned. He struck out five and walked four.
The walks ran his pitch count up, and the error and another mistake from Muncy cost him more pitches as well to limit his outing. It still turned out to be a strong effort from Yamamoto as he battled his lack of command throughout the game.
As for Skenes, he tossed 6.1 shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out nine with no walks.
The Dodgers hardly threatened him either, aside from a one-out double from Andy Pages in the third and a leadoff double in the fourth by Freddie Freeman, who advanced to third on an error.
Freeman starting the inning at third base gave the Dodgers their best chance to score off Skenes, but Teoscar Hernández grounded out, Tommy Edman struck out and Will Smith flied out.
Pages doubled again in the fifth inning, but this time in came with two outs and Shohei Ohtani followed with a strikeout.
With more than 100 pitches already thrown after his sixth inning, Skenes was back out on the mound to start the seventh. He struck out Will Smith before being removed from the game after 108 pitches.
From there, Ryan Borucki finished out the seventh, Dennis Santana tossed a scoreless eighth and David Bednar recorded the save.
Dodgers wining streak vs. Pirates ends
Entering the game, the Dodgers had won four straight games against the Pirates dating back to last season. They took won the final of a three-game series in June in Pittsburgh before the Dodgers swept the Pirates at home in August.
The Dodgers are now 15-11 against the Pirates since 2021.
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