Skenes wins second straight, Pirates score 10 in fourth to sweep Brewers
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes won his second straight start after going winless for nine in a row as the Pittsburgh Pirates scored 10 runs in the fourth inning to rout the Milwaukee Brewers 14-5 Sunday and head into the All-Star break with a three-game sweep.
What was slated to be a high-profile matchup lost some of its luster when Milwaukee scratched hard-throwing Jacob Misiorowski on Saturday because of arm fatigue. While Skenes and Misiorowski are All-Stars, both will skip pitching in Tuesday’s showcase.
Skenes (8-8) allowed two runs and three hits over 5 1/3 innings with one walk and seven strikeouts — including four among his final five batters. He had been 0-6 in nine starts before beating Atlanta on Tuesday, and the Pirates lost all nine of those games.
Robert Gasser (2-4) gave up seven runs and eight hits in three-plus innings.
Pittsburgh (50-47) took a 4-2 lead into the fourth and scored seven runs before making an out.
Marcell Ozuna homered, Henry Davis had an RBI single and Jared Koenig hit Bryan Reynolds with a pitch with the bases loaded, forced in a run by walking Esmerlyn Valdez and allowed Ryan O’Hearn’s run-scoring single that boosted the advantage to 9-2.
Nick Gonzales greeted Grant Anderson with a two-run double, Triolo hit a two-run single and, after a video review reversed the call at first on what appeared to be an inning-ending double-play grounder by Davis, Jake Mangum hit an RBI triple.
Skenes tossed three perfect innings before giving up back-to-back doubles starting the fourth to Christian Yelich and Chourio. Gary Sánchez hit into a run-scoring forceout.
Brice Turang hit a two-run homer in a three-run eighth.
UP NEXT
Brewers: Start a home series Friday against Miami.
Pirates: Open a three-game series Friday at Cleveland.