Paul Skenes held the Los Angeles Dodgers scoreless through five innings when the Pittsburgh Pirates ace faced the ultimate test: A showdown between superstars.

In what could be considered a showcase moment for Skenes to win the National League Cy Young Award, the 23-year-old retired the top of the order that featured a trio of MVPs on a dozen pitches.

It started with striking out Shohei Ohtani, arguably the game’s greatest player, on three pitches. Skenes then got Mookie Betts to pop up to third base and Freddie Freeman on a deep fly to left-center to end the frame.

Behind another strong start by Skenes and a four-run fifth inning, the Pirates beat the NL West-leading Dodgers, 5-3, on Thursday night before 20,563 at PNC Park to sweep their three-game series.

“If they’re not the best top three in the league, I don’t know who is. I’ve got to execute at the highest level against them,” Skenes said. “That’s why we play the game. They call it ‘The Show’ for a reason. That’s the stuff that you enjoy. Going for a sweep at home against arguably the best team in baseball, those are cool opportunities. You can’t take them for granted.”

The Pirates recorded their seventh sweep of the season and sixth at home, the most in one season since they had 11 sweeps in 2015. It was the first time they have swept the Dodgers at PNC Park since 2015, when they won all three games in the series from Aug. 7-9.

It was the 11th scoreless start for Skenes, who received another rousing ovation from the home crowd as he walked off the field after striking out eight while allowing two hits and one walk in six innings. It was his eighth scoreless outing of six innings or more.

“It’s his drive and his competitiveness, the way he attacks and gets after it,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “It may show up against the elite teams, especially the Dodgers and those guys, but he brings it every single day, which is what makes him really special.”

Skenes (10-9) also answered perhaps the only knock against him with a winning record for the first time since April.

“Yeah, they can’t say that anymore,” Skenes said, with a smile.

He also lowered his ERA to an MLB-leading 1.98 and tied Philadelphia’s Zach Wheeler for the lowest WHIP (0.94) and most strikeouts (194) in the NL and is tied for the major-league lead in quality starts, with 19 in 29 outings.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander relied heavily on his four-seam fastball against the Dodgers, throwing it on 39 of his 94 pitches while mixing a balance of changeups, sweepers, curveballs and sinkers. He drew 13 whiffs, 13 called strikes and 27 fouls, striking out eight while allowing two hits and one walk.

The first at-bat of the game was a showdown between Skenes and Ohtani, who had an epic matchup in their first meeting in June 2024. Skenes struck out Ohtani on three triple-digit fastballs in the first inning, then surrendered a two-run home run in the next at-bat.

This time, Skenes got Ohtani to swing and miss at fastballs on the first two pitches before going foul, ball, foul, ball for a 2-2 count. Skenes then got Ohtani to chase a 98.8-mph heater at the top of the zone.

Skenes retired the first eight batters he faced — four by strikeout — before Dalton Rushing drilled a double off the gold padding atop the center-field fence in the third. Ohtani followed with a walk, but Skenes got Betts to ground into a forceout at second base to end the frame.

The Pirates tagged Dodgers lefty Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, for five runs on nine hits and three walks against six strikeouts over five innings. They took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, when Bryan Reynolds hit a leadoff single to center and advanced twice on wild pitches to score on Tommy Pham’s single to left.

Jared Triolo started the fifth by working a full count against Snell before smacking a single through the middle. Nick Gonzales followed with a single, and Reynolds drilled a sharp grounder through the left side to drive in Triolo for a 2-0 lead. Snell struck out Pham, then intentionally walked Andrew McCutchen to load the bases.

Nick Yorke dropped a bloop that landed inside the left-field line for a double to drive in Gonzales and Reynolds for a 4-0 lead. With runners on second and third, Alexander Canario hit a grounder to first that allowed McCutchen to score for a five-run advantage.

“He made them pay for it with a huge double,” Kelly said. “I’m really happy for him in that moment.”

Yohan Ramirez relieved Skenes and kept the Dodgers scoreless in the seventh and for two outs in the eighth, when lefty Evan Sisk replaced Ramirez and got Ohtani to pop up to second for the final out.

The Dodgers hadn’t been blanked in back-to-back games all season, and Betts made sure of it by belting Dauri Moreta’s full-count slider 385 feet to left field for his 15th home run to lead off the ninth and cut it to 5-1.

Teoscar Hernandez singled to left, reached third on Michael Conforto’s single to center and scored on an Andy Pages grounder up the middle that Triolo stopped but couldn’t flip to second base fast enough. That made it 5-2, causing the Pirates to turn to Colin Holderman.

Holderman got Hyesong Kim to fly out to left, but Miguel Rojas singled to left to score Conforto to cut it to 5-3. Holderman recovered to get Ben Rortvedt swinging to record his first save since Aug. 10, 2023.

“For Colin to come in in that situation and get the save, huge moment there for us,” Kelly said. “Being able to close the door, you feel the moment. You feel it going. Honestly, that’s what you play for. Those are the moments that you play the game for and those are the moments we look forward to here at PNC, with everybody on their feet, playing meaningful baseball and working towards getting back to the playoffs.”

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