Paul Skenes tosses 7 scoreless innings as Pirates shut out Rockies for series sweep

Paul Skenes took a slow stroll off the mound to a standing ovation after seven scoreless innings and with complete confidence that the Pittsburgh Pirates were on their way to a shutout victory.

It was the punctuation on a dominant weekend series for Pirates pitchers, who held the Colorado Rockies to one run after they poured on 30 in a three-game series Aug. 1-3 at Coors Field.

A four-run fourth inning that featured Jared Triolo’s three-run homer was all the support Skenes needed in a 4-0 win Sunday afternoon before 20,300 at PNC Park. It was the Pirates’ fourth consecutive victory.

“Doing my job. That’s it,” Skenes said. “I knew that we were going to win that game at that point. It’s doing my job and then handing it off to the next guy to do their job. We’ve done a good job of that. We’ll continue to do that.”

It was the MLB-leading 16th shutout win and sixth sweep of the season for the Pirates, their first since taking three games at the San Francisco Giants from July 28-30.

The Pirates scored 48 runs in the season series with Colorado to break the club record for most runs in a six-game series in the modern era (since 1901), which was 46 against the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016.

After winning National League Rookie of the Year honors last season, the 23-year-old Skenes continued to make his case as a leading candidate for the NL Cy Young Award by striking out seven without a walk and allowing three hits in seven shutout innings for his 17th quality start in 27 outings this season.

In the process, Skenes (8-9) lowered his ERA to an MLB-best 2.07, his WHIP to 0.94 and surpassed his career high in innings (160 1/3), recording 181 strikeouts in 161 innings (a 10.1 K/9 rate). In 50 career starts, Skenes has a 2.02 ERA, which ranks second only to Vida Blue’s 2.01 in the live ball era (since 1920).

Skenes threw 69 of his 101 pitches for strikes, drawing 60 swings, 15 whiffs and nine called strikes. He averaged 98.1 mph on 41 four-seam fastballs, effectively mixing in his sweeper, changeup and sinker.

“It’s amazing what he’s able to do,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “You see the fastball. The velo, the command was there today, being able to mix it up in and out, up and down, go to the changeup, the sweeper. He’s always in control, which is really impressive. You know, it’s really hard to put that expectation on him. … It’s his first full major-league season, 50 (career) starts. He continues to go out and do what he does. He was phenomenal today.”

Skenes helped himself in the third inning, when Kyle Karros hit a leadoff single. After Karros advanced to second on a fielder’s choice, Skenes picked him off with a throw to Nick Gonzales. Then Skenes struck out Tyler Freeman to end the frame. Skenes called it a “shot in the dark,” stepping off the mound as he was running out of time on the pitch clock and seeing Gonzales covering the bag.

“That was huge,” Kelly said. “Great call by Henry (Davis) right there and great execution with Paul and Nick. Really big out.”

Brenton Doyle was the only Rockies player to reach base against Skenes after the third inning. Doyle reached on an error by first baseman Spencer Horwitz in the fifth and on a book-rule double in the seventh, when Skenes recorded three strikeouts to finish his outing strong.

Skenes was complimentary of home plate umpire Jen Pawol’s performance.

“She did a great job. It was a normal game,” Skenes said. “She’s a major league umpire. Obviously, she’s a big leaguer, but she’s a pro. I think umpires get a bad rap. I know there’s talk about ABS and all that kind of thing. I think most of them are good. She’s one of the good ones.”

In his major-league debut, Rockies right-hander McCade Brown held the Pirates scoreless through the first three innings before they broke through in the fourth. Bryan Reynolds drew a leadoff walk, and Andrew McCutchen singled to left. With two outs, Triolo smashed a first-pitch slider 412 feet into the left-field bleachers for his fifth home run and a 3-0 lead.

It was the second consecutive game with a homer for Triolo, who hit a two-run shot in Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Rockies.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Triolo, who went 6 for 10 with five RBIs and three runs scored in the three-game series. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a back-to-back homer game, so that’s kind of a milestone for me.”

After Davis drew a walk then scored on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s double to left-center, that was it for Brown. He allowed four runs on five hits and three walks with two strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings.

After Isaac Mattson pitched a clean eighth, Dennis Santana gave up a two-out double to Hunter Goodman and walked Jordan Beck to put runners on first and second in the ninth before getting Doyle to ground out to second to clinch the sweep.

The Pirates begin a seven-game road trip with a four-game series at St. Louis followed by three games at Boston.

“I think we needed a little momentum,” Triolo said. “Winning the first game was huge for us. Game 2 and Game 3 were good for our offense and pitchers, as well. But just the momentum we can take from this series to the next series will be big for us.”