Paul Skenes shuts out the Brewers in seven shutout innings.

In yet another outstanding outing, Paul Skenes struck out 11 batters in seven scoreless innings, as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 on Thursday.
In his eleventh big league start, Skenes threw 99 pitches, 65 of which were strikes. The All-Star right-hander cut his ERA to 1.90 and only gave up one walk.

“It just comes down to going out there and executing,” Skenes said. “Well, that’s what strikeouts look like, then whatever. It all comes down to getting away.”
After replacing Skenes (6-0), Colin Holderman gave up Milwaukee’s first hit, a leadoff single to Jake Bauers. In the eighth inning, with two down, the Brewers loaded the bases, but Holderman got out of a jam when he struck out William Contreras swinging.
Pittsburgh’s Aroldis Chapman closed off a two-hitter in the ninth inning, earning his fourth save.
Skenes, the first overall selection from LSU in last year’s draft, pitched six no-hit innings in his second start for Pittsburgh on May 17 against the Chicago Cubs, striking out eleven batters. Of his 11 big league starts, he has allowed two runs or less nine times.
Derek Shelton, manager of Pittsburgh, said, “I don’t think anybody thinks that when you come to the big leagues, it’s going to be like this.”
Based on information from ESPN Stats & Information, the Pirates’ previous no-hitter was on July 12, 1997, in a joint effort against the Houston Astros.
Pitching six hits into the seventh inning, Aaron Civale (2-7) had a fantastic outing, but Milwaukee squandered it. For the sixth time in seven games, the NL Central leaders suffered a defeat.
In the eighth inning, the Pirates scored their lone run. After Jack Suwinski grounded into a fielder’s choice, Ke’Bryan Hayes was removed from the game.
Yasmani Grandal then scored from first with a headfirst slide, and Suwinski scored from the right-center gap with a double.
Bryan Hudson took Civale’s place after he gave Andrew McCutchen a walk. After that, Hudson got Bryan Reynolds to bounce into a double play that ended the inning.
In the second inning, with two down and Bauers hit by Skenes, Milwaukee gained their first baserunner. Andruw Monasterio made the last out by striking out swinging after Garrett Mitchell had walked.
Contreras blasted a foul ball into the second deck in the third inning, just missing the foul pole in left. Before striking out, he forced Skenes to throw him ten pitches.
Remaining composed, Skenes took a minute to tie his shoe after getting Willy Adames out of the game for the second time in the fourth inning.
“Just falling back to your process and then just focusing on executing and getting the guys out, getting the pitches and, as long as you do that, then everything’s going to kind of fall where it may,” Skenes said. “So, just got to fall back to your preparation.”
Skenes struck out eight of the last 16 hitters he faced in order to retire them. He has struck out 89 batters in 66⅓ innings thus far.
Milwaukee slugger Christian Yelich said, “Guys have velo in the major leagues, but just being able to pitch and kind of just throw anything at any time, he keeps you off-balance.” “We really did a great job against him today, in my opinion. We should have done a better job of removing him from the game earlier, in my opinion. With a few at-bats left in the game, I believe we let him off the hook.”
Tuesday, Pittsburgh defeated the Brewers 12-2; on Wednesday, they were defeated 9-0. Milwaukee has won nine home series in a row.

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