Skenes dominates with 6 no-hit innings

He struck out 11 Cubs batters in his second major league start.

Paul Skenes’ four-inning MLB debut last week against the Chicago Cubs was promising but ultimately left something to be desired.

In big-league start No. 2 on Friday at Wrigley Field, Skenes faced the Cubs again and put together an outing that was far more becoming of the former Pittsburgh Pirates No. 1 overall draft pick.

Skenes was dominant in every way imaginable, no-hitting Chicago over six innings, striking out 11 with a walk while throwing 100 pitches in a 9-3 win.

“It was extremely impressive,” manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “He went right after them. This is a tough club to strike out. … This is a good offense, and he went right at them with really good stuff.”

The 21-year-old Skenes (1-0, 2.70 ERA) struck out Mike Tauchman to begin the game, followed by strikeouts of Ian Happ and Cody Bellinger.

Skenes struck out the side again in the second inning.

When he struck out Nick Madrigal to begin the bottom of the third, his seventh straight, he began flirting with history. The MLB record for consecutive strikeouts to start a game is nine, held by Pablo Lopez, then of the Miami Marlins, in 2021.

“Felt good,” said Skenes, who allowed three runs, six hits, walked two and hit a batter in his debut. “I had my pitches working for me a lot better than last time, so it was nice to get that one out of the way and get into a groove there. … You can chalk it up to a lot, but it was just really nice to go out there and execute.”

Chicago finally put a ball in play during its eighth at-bat, when Pete Crow-Armstrong grounded out, but Skenes continued to dominate.

A walk of Michael Busch in the fifth was the only baserunner he allowed.

Skenes’ day ended the way it began, with a strikeout of Tauchman, retiring him on a 100 mph fastball, his 100th pitch to close the sixth.

Since 1916, the Pirates (21-25) and Cubs have played 1,017 games at Wrigley Field. Never before had a Pirates pitcher recorded 11 strikeouts there before Skenes on Friday.

“Just really cool all-around,” Skenes said. “Wrigley’s awesome, playing these guys and Friday day game — I’ve heard all about the day games at Wrigley and the vibe there, so it was just really, really cool.”

Meanwhile, the Pirates offense had one of its best days of the season, recording 15 hits, the second most on the year.

Jared Triolo put the Pirates up 2-0 in the second with a two-run homer off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks.

Whereas Skenes was dealing, Hendricks got beat up, lasting just 4 2/3 innings and taking the loss after allowing seven earned runs on 11 hits.

The Pirates plated three in the fourth inning to go up 5-0.

Nick Gonzales got it started with a double, and he scored on Yasmani Grandal’s single.

Rowdy Tellez then singled, followed by a two-run single by Triolo, one of which coming home on a throwing error to home plate by Crow-Armstrong.

In the fifth, the Pirates added three more, going up 8-0 and leading to Hendricks’ departure.

Bryan Reynolds and Connor Joe got aboard with singles before Gonzales hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Reynolds.

Then, after Jack Suwinski singled and stole second base, Grandal hit a two-run single.

Andrew McCutchen hit his sixth home run of the year in the eighth, a solo shot off Mark Leiter Jr., putting his club in front 9-0.

After Skenes’ exit, the Pirates bullpen had a few shaky moments, as Carmen Mlodzinski, making his season debut, allowed three hits and two earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Mlodzinski surrendered a solo home run to Miguel Amaya, and after giving up a single to Tauchman, was replaced by Ryder Ryan.

But Ryan walked two straight batters before Morel hit a two-run, bases- loaded double to make the score 9-3.

Shelton, not taking any chances, then inserted Hunter Stratton, who got out of the inning and pitched a scoreless ninth, closing the door on the Cubs