North Shore Nine

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Paul Skenes won 10-6 over the Dodgers Wednesday night. The win gave the Pirates the series victory setting them up for potential sweep of the NLW juggernaut.

Paul Skenes did his usual over the first two innings, striking out four and making the announcers go “Yeah!”. Offensively the Pirates went 1-2-3 in the 1st. But in the bottom of the 2nd the Pirates decided to assist Skenes. Edward Olivares started the inning with a walk, Ke’Bryan Hayes then singled, and with a error in the OF put men on 2nd and 3rd. Nick Gonzales then doubled scouring two, Yasmani Grandal then singled making it 3-0. After a Jared Triolo single and a Jack Suwinski bunt, men were again on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Andrew McCutchen then walked to load the bases, Bryan Reynolds then singled to make it 5-0 and leaving men on 1st and 2nd. A strikeout by Connor Joe gave the Pirates 2 outs, however Olivares then singled up the middle making it 6-0 chasing James Paxton from the game after less than 2 innings. The first pitch from the new pitcher saw Olivares steal 2nd base, then a wild pitch scored Reynolds and moved Olivares to 3rd base making it 7-0 Pirates. A then Hayes flyout could not stifle a electric crowd as the Pirates went into the top of the 3rd.
In the 3rd, Shohei Otani hit a 3-2 pitch out of the park for a 2-run homerun making it 7-2 Pirates. Skenes was then able to pitch a scoreless 4th, brining the Pirates to bat once again. While the Pirates did nothing in their 4th, in the Top of the 5th another homerun was hit of off Skenes. The next batter caused an error by Nick Gonzales putting a man on 1st with no outs. After a pair of singles and stakeouts late the bases were loaded with two outs for the Dodgers. Fortunately, a one pitch groundout ended the threat for the Dodgers and got Skenes out of the inning and ending his night.
In the bottom of the frame a single and walk but men on 1st and 2nd with one out. A horrible pick off advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd allowing Gonzlaes to hit a sac-fly to make it 8-3 Pirates. A Grandal pop-out ended the frame however, leaving it 8-3 going into the 6th. Carmen Mlodzinski came on to pitch the Pirate 6th. A double started off Mlodzinski’s night, however a hard hit out to SS gave him an out even when allowing the runner to go to 3rd base. A strikeout out them ran it to two outs, however a passed ball made it 8-4 Pirates. A then lineout to RF ended the inning for the Pirates.
Dodgers clawed another back in the top of the seveth to make the socre 8-5. In the bottom of the frame the Pirates scored a pair more to push the score to 10-5. Even surrenderign another run to make it 10-6 in the Top of the 8th wasnt enough to keep the Pirates and Skenes from a victory and a series win.