Skenes Opens Dodgers Vs Pirates After 3 Losses in 4 Starts
Paul Skenes gets the ball in dodgers vs pirates on Tuesday, starting Game 1 of a three-game series at PNC Park while trying to stop a skid that has taken him from 6-2 to 6-5. The Pirates right-hander has lost three of his last four starts, and the opener comes against a Dodgers club that has built one of the sharpest statistical profiles in baseball.
Skenes Meets Los Angeles
The matchup begins at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, and it arrives with Skenes carrying a 3.09 ERA after four starts following his May 12 gem against Colorado. On that night, he struck out 10, worked eight innings of shutout baseball and lowered his ERA to 1.98 while improving to 6-2.
Since then, the results have turned. He has gone four starts without a win, including an 11-9 loss to the Houston Astros last Wednesday, and those outings have pushed him into a rougher stretch at 25 hits, six walks and 11 earned runs over 20 innings.
Dodgers' Numbers Stack Up
Los Angeles enters at 42-24 and has piled up 345 runs while allowing 212, producing a plus-133 run differential that leads MLB. The Dodgers also have 90 home runs, a 1.07 WHIP, a.208 opponent batting average and a 3.17 ERA from their pitching staff.
Shohei Ohtani sits first in the NL with a.939 OPS and has 11 home runs and a.302 batting average. Over his last 10 games, he has gone 19 for 43 with a.442 average, three home runs and a 1.234 OPS, and he is also carrying a 0.74 pitching ERA with a 6-2 record.
Pirates Rotation Pressure
The Pirates arrive after a three-game sweep by Atlanta, so Skenes is taking the mound with the team looking to steady itself against one of the league’s strongest lineups. His recent fastball results have been uneven, with 18 balls put in play on the pitch over his last four starts, nine hits and 11 hard-contact events.
He got ahead of hitters on the first pitch at a 52% rate in his last outing, but the contact kept coming. A start in Toronto over Memorial Day weekend brought nine hits and four earned runs in five innings, another step in the stretch that has followed his peak against Colorado.
Jared Jones is scheduled to follow on Wednesday, with Justin Wrobleski set for Thursday on the Dodgers’ side of the series. For Pittsburgh, Tuesday’s opener is the immediate chance to see whether Skenes can reset against a club built on run prevention and run production at the same time.
