Diamondbacks baffled by Paul Skenes: ‘That’s an approach’

PHOENIX — Pirates ace and defending National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes is on a roll against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which continued on Wednesday in a 1-0 victory for Pittsburgh at Chase Field.

Skenes shut out the Diamondbacks through eight innings, striking out the side to end his night having retired his final 10 batters.

The 23-year-old has not allowed a run in his last three starts against Arizona dating back to last year, 20.2 innings in total.

The Diamondbacks, who scored nine runs on nine hits with seven walks on Tuesday, just could not crack him. They never even put a runner on third base.

Manager Torey Lovullo mentioned postgame that the plan was to be aggressive with Skenes early, and the pitcher took advantage.

“The plan was to get going early, not let him get into some secondary stuff,” Lovullo said. 

“It means I can go deep in games,” Skenes said after throwing 65 of 97 pitches for strikes. “They were taking their shots, and not too many of them landed, but that’s an approach.”

It’s a double-edged sword in a way, as Skenes pounds the strike zone but can do so with five nasty pitches. But failing to get into the Pittsburgh bullpen until the ninth inning was a blow, as the plan did not work.

On a night when the D-backs’ offense was baffled, the game was never out of reach thanks to their starting pitcher.

Michael Soroka bounces back

Michael Soroka stepped up admirably for a pitchers’ duel with one of the game’s biggest stars.

Soroka put an eight-run outing last week in Milwaukee behind him with a quality start. After allowing a first-inning home run to Brandon Lowe, Soroka (and his defense) kept the Pirates off the board into the seventh inning.

The right-hander maneuvered through the lineup three times, delivering 6.1 frames with one earned run on seven hits. He struck out six with two walks.

“I think decompressing after that one and realizing it was pretty close to being not as bad of an outing as it was,” Soroka said. “That’s the way baseball goes sometimes. Kinda making the adjustments I wanted to make coming into this one. Brought the fight to them instead of letting it come to me.”

Soroka has been exceptionally productive at home this season with a 1.59 ERA in five starts at Chase Field.

A lot went well for the D-backs’ run prevention overall.

The bullpen backed up Soroka with Kevin Ginkel, Juan Morillo and Taylor Clarke keeping the score where it was.

Alek Thomas made a highlight sliding catch in left-center field after coming up short of a leaping grab at the wall earlier in the game. The D-backs executed a rundown for an unconventional 3-2-5-6 double play to escape a jam, and Ketel Marte threw a strike home to cut down a runner in the seventh.

Arizona allowed one run through the first two games in this series.

It just so happened that Skenes lived up to the billing on the other side.

What made Paul Skenes so effective vs. Diamondbacks

Skenes retired the first 14 batters of the game with 49 pitches, just over halfway to perfection.

The bid ended rather unceremoniously with a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. dribbler to the left side, as Skenes’ throw to first was wild. With a perfect throw, Skenes could have collected the out, and if the no-hitter continued, that ruling could have been a point of contention.

The point became moot quickly, as Nolan Arenado laced a single to left on the next pitch, more importantly giving the D-backs a chance with a runner in scoring position. Those were the only hits of the game for Arizona, however, as Skenes lowered his ERA to 2.36.

Skenes threw all five of his pitches between 11-39% of the time, per Statcast, and having everything firing in the same game gave him options to attack the zone against an aggressive team.

“Just, all the pitches he throws, they’re all elite, ” Arenado said. “And it feels like his fastball was really lively today. But the changeup was really good. I mean, everything, the slider was sweeping a lot. I mean, he throws everything, and they’re all elite pitches, and he had it today. Tip your cap.”

To start the game, he showed Geraldo Perdomo a 98 mph heater for a called strike, followed by a splitter down for a foul ball and back-to-back changeups for a ball and another foul. Skenes painted a 98 mph fastball on the outside corner for his first punch out.

In the eighth inning, he fell behind Arenado 3-1 and fooled the veteran with a splitter and a changeup down in the zone for the strikeout.

“He made some good adjustments, you prepare for the velocity, but you don’t see it every pitch,” Lovullo said. 

The Diamondbacks have already faced two of the three NL Cy Young finalists from 2025 this year in Skenes and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, along with two-time defending AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.

With Skenes at 97 pitches through eight inning, the Pirates elected to turn to left-hander Gregory Soto for the save. The D-backs had the right part of the order up to face Soto, but the lefty retired Marte and Corbin Carroll to end the game.

Arizona fell to 17-18, while Pittsburgh moved up to 20-17.

Series finale

Zac Gallen will take the hill for the D-backs in the series finale on Thursday at 12:40 p.m. MST. His counterpart will be right-hander Mitch Keller, who has allowed six runs over his last three starts.

The Diamondbacks will then host the New York Mets for three games, starting on Friday.

Thursday’s game can be heard on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. 

Related

Can Ketel Marte get luckier, D-backs find old offensive form?Eduardo Rodriguez ends Diamondbacks' quality starts drought in blowout win vs. PiratesDiamondbacks' Brandyn Garcia saw start of season in Triple-A as opportunity to get rightDiamondbacks notebook: Injury updates, Lovullo meets with starting rotationKohl Drake to make MLB debut for Diamondbacks Tuesday vs. A’sDiamondbacks disappoint by following historic comeback with loss to struggling Athletics