Paul Skenes tosses 6 scoreless innings as Pirates pound Reds for shutout victory

The return of Ke’Bryan Hayes with the Cincinnati Reds brought a warm reception from a crowd that cheered the first third baseman in Pittsburgh Pirates history to win a Gold Glove.

The better ovation was saved for Paul Skenes, who continued to build his candidacy for the National League Cy Young Award.

The 23-year-old right-hander recorded eight strikeouts without a walk in six scoreless innings to put his name in the record books and lead the Pirates to a 7-0 win Thursday night before 20,339 at PNC Park.

“Absolutely. It’s still too early to tell who would win, but for me, he’s right up there at the top of the list with the way he’s pitched and the way he goes about it,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He goes out every single day and tries to get better, which is the most impressive thing to me.”

It marked the fifth consecutive start by Skenes at PNC Park where he didn’t allow an earned run, a stretch of 27²⁄₃ scoreless innings. That’s the longest streak by a Pirates pitcher since earned runs became an official statistic in the NL in 1912.

Skenes broke a tie with Bob Harmon (1915) and Zane Smith (1990) for the longest streak of home starts without allowing an earned run and became the youngest MLB pitcher in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to have five consecutive starts without allowing an earned run in a single season. His last run allowed at home was June 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies, and his last earned run at home was June 3 against the Houston Astros.

“I’m not surprised,” Pirates catcher Henry Davis said. “It’s great to see. He executed every pitch and worked around some stuff. Obviously, scoreless start, shutout as a staff — so, great.”

That Skenes (7-8) allowed seven hits, including doubles by Gavin Lux and TJ Friedl, marked the first time in his career he surrendered more than six hits. The Reds had a runner reach second base in four of his six innings on the mound, but he never allowed one to reach third.

“That’s where you see what you’re made of,” Skenes said. “I think that’s the biggest thing: Every time you go out there, you see what you’re made of. Sometimes, when you get that external pressure rather than internal pressure, I guess. If I’m pitching out of the windup, it’s all internal pressure, however you want to call it, but you don’t have a lot of room for error there. So just see what you’re made of.”

Against the Reds, Skenes is made of Kevlar. His dominance over Cincinnati continued as Skenes has a 0.39 ERA with 33 strikeouts against two walks in 23 innings over four starts.

“I don’t know that I match up any better against them than any other team,” Skenes said. “I know I’ve pitched well against them, but I don’t know what it is.”

Skenes threw 69 of his 97 pitches for strikes, drawing 11 whiffs and 19 called strikes, and touched 100.2 mph on his four-seam fastball. He lowered his season ERA to 1.94 and earned his 15th quality start in 24 outings, one more start than in his NL Rookie of the Year season.

The Pirates provided Skenes some support with a three-run cushion in the first inning. Bryan Reynolds jump-started things by hitting a two-out solo home run by driving Brady Singer’s 3-0 sinker 391 feet to left field for his 11th home run — but first since June 29.

Oneil Cruz battled back from an 0-2 count to draw an eight-pitch walk, and Singer walked Andrew McCutchen and Jack Suwinski to load the bases. Jared Triolo then hit a grounder to center to drive in Cruz and McCutchen.

“It was huge to be able to get three runs in that first inning offensively,” Kelly said. “Some really, really good at-bats in the first inning, being able to put up a three-spot and give him a little bit of support early.”

Skenes gave up two hits in both the first and third innings but got out of jams both times. In the first, he got Austin Hays to ground into a 4-3 double play to end the frame. In the third, Skenes got Elly De La Cruz to chase a 97.9 mph fastball away for his third strikeout. Skenes recorded three more strikeouts in the fourth, stranded Friedl at second after a double in the fifth and Lux after a single in the sixth.

Hayes singled in his first at-bat at PNC Park since being traded to the Reds on July 30 for lefty reliever Taylor Rogers (who was traded to the Chicago Cubs) and minor-league shortstop Sammy Stafura.

In the bottom of the fourth, Davis hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s groundout to short and scored on a single to center by Spencer Horwitz to give the Pirates a 4-0 lead.

The Pirates had another scoring chance snuffed out when McCutchen attempted to score from second on a single to right by Kiner-Falefa, but Noelvi Marte threw him out at home to end the fifth.

Horwitz drew a full-count walk to start the sixth, advanced on a single by Nick Gonzales and Reynolds’ flyout to center and scored when Cruz grounded out to second to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead.

In the seventh, Triolo reached on a fielding error by De La Cruz, and Davis drilled lefty Brent Suter’s 2-2 fastball 373 feet down the left-field line for his fifth homer and a 7-0 Pirates lead. Davis wasn’t sure the ball would clear the fence, which Reds left fielder Austin Hays climbed in a leaping attempt.

“I hoped — and then I saw him climbing up on the wall. I was like, ‘Oh, he’s definitely catching it,’ ” Davis said. “Thankfully, it got out.”

Relievers Cam Sanders, Ryan Borucki and Kyle Nicolas combined to throw scoreless frames over the final three innings to preserve the 14th shutout win of the season for the Pirates (50-66), who started a stretch of 10 consecutive games against National League Central opponents. It was the seventh scoreless outing by Skenes, who has started in five of those shutouts.

“He’s got elite stuff, but when he gets in trouble he’s able to go to a lot of different things to get out of the inning, to be able to get punchouts or induce double plays,” Kelly said. “He’s got that feel of a pitcher. He’s got power stuff, but he’s a pitcher and how he’s able to induce a double play or go for the punchout when he needs it. There’s not many like him.”