Henry Davis provides most of his support behind the plate, serving as the personal catcher to Paul Skenes on a night when the Pittsburgh Pirates ace fired fastballs that the Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t touch.

But Davis delivered in a different way in the seventh inning, when he hit a leadoff double, advanced to third base on a sacrifice and broke open a tied game by scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

Davis added a sacrifice fly in the eighth, when the Pirates scored two more runs to pull away for a 5-2 win Monday night in the series opener before 17,477 at PNC Park.

“It was good to see. He’s probably the second hardest worker in the building, if you know what I mean,” Skenes said, smiling at the jab. “He does a really good job with his process. It’s going to show up when you give it time. He’s done a really good job behind the plate for us all year. That’s not a secret. I know all he cares about is winning and helping the team win. So it’s good to see, but it’s good for him to have, also.”

Skenes received a standing ovation as he walked off the field after getting Ernie Clement to go down swinging at an 88.5-mph changeup, marking the fifth of his six innings that ended with a strikeout.

But he also received a no-decision for the 10th time in 26 starts, as he left with the score tied. The 6-foot-6 right-hander finished with eight strikeouts against one walk, allowing two runs on one hit while throwing 65 of his 96 pitches for strikes in his 16th quality start, which is tied with Garrett Crochet and Zack Wheeler for the MLB lead.

Skenes relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it 51 times and drawing 26 swings, 10 whiffs and 10 called strikes. He struck out the heart of the Blue Jays’ order before Clement hit a two-out single to left. Clement reached third on a single to right by Nathan Lukes, who then stole second base to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Skenes got Tyler Heineman swinging at a 98.6-mph fastball to escape.

“I think as the game went on, he was more comfortable,” Davis said, “and when he’s hitting his spots, it’s tough to do anything with it.”

Nick Gonzales led off the second inning with a single to right, advanced to second on Jared Triolo’s walk and scored on a single to center by Alexander Canario, who snapped an 0-for-21 streak by recording his first hit since July 7 to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Skenes had two runners in scoring position again in the third, when George Springer reached on a fielder’s choice and Addison Barger followed by smoking a one-out double at an exit velocity of 115.8 mph to the right field corner. Springer scored to tie the game when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a sharp bouncer to third, where Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a leaping snag. Bo Bichette lined a single to right to drive in Barger and give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.

That snapped Skenes’ streak of 29⅔ scoreless innings at PNC Park and marked the first time he allowed an earned run at home since Christian Walker homered for the Houston Astros in a 3-0 win on June 3.

“He’s been so good, especially at home, I didn’t even know it was that long,” Kelly said. “Sometimes he goes out there and he’s so good so often that you kind of come to expect it, which is completely unfair to him because that’s not baseball. Again, we’re talking about a guy that’s in his first full major league season and the way he goes about it, he showed it again.”

The Pirates tied it in the bottom of the third, when Spencer Horwitz hit a leadoff double to left, advanced to third on Tommy Pham’s single to right and scored when Bryan Reynolds hit a grounder to Guerrero at first, and his throw was dropped by catcher Tyler Heineman as Horwitz slid head-first into home plate.

With runners on first and third, Triolo hit a rocket to short that Bichette nabbed and fired a throw to first, where Guerrero went into a full split for the pick and prevent a run. Guerrero was later removed from the game due to left hamstring tightness.

Lefty Evan Sisk replaced Skenes and got pinch hitter Davis Schneider looking at a curveball at the bottom of the strike zone, and Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ejected by home plate for arguing the call. Sisk (1-1) recorded his first major league win.

“It’s awesome, especially as crazy as the last two weeks have been just with the trade and everything,” said Sisk, who was acquired from the Kansas City Royals in the Bailey Falter deal late last month. “Picking up and moving cities and then going to Indy, getting the call to come up here and help the team win, it’s a good feeling.”

Davis started the seventh with a double down the left field line, advanced to third on Kiner-Falefa’s sacrifice and scored when lefty Brendon Little threw a wild pitch that bounced in the dirt in front of home plate to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.

Things quickly went awry for the Blue Jays. Peguero drew a full-count walk, then reached second when Little made a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. Pham drew a four-pitch walk and flipped his bat and exchanged words with Heineman, causing both benches to clear. A double steal put both in scoring position, but Little struck out Reynolds and Seranthony Dominguez came in to strike out Gonzales.

The Pirates padded their lead in the eighth, when Triolo drew a walk and reached third when Dominguez made a throwing error to second base on Canario’s fielder’s choice. Heineman overthrew second base on Canario’s attempted steal, allowing Triolo to score for a 4-2 lead and Canario to reach third. Canario scored on the sacrifice fly by Davis to the warning track in left center for a three-run advantage.

“That was huge. To lead off that inning with a double, got a good pitch to hit, kept it fair. To be able to tack on an extra one there with a really good at-bat,” Kelly said. “He’s continuing to grind, continuing to work and starting to see a little bit of the fruits of that. He’s gone through a tough stretch and, to his credit, continued to battle and work behind the plate. It has not affected him defensively at all. He’s locked in back there and has done a nice job.”

Not only did Davis do a nice job with Skenes but guided the bullpen through scoreless innings by Sisk, Kyle Nicolas and Dennis Santana, who finished off the Blue Jays to earn his eighth save.

“To score a bunch of runs, I was really pumped about that,” Kelly said. “And when you see what Paul did, Sisk coming in and Nicolas with a huge inning there in the eighth and then Santana closing the door, offense continuing to grind and put pressure on the defense and score some runs, it was a great team win.”

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