Pirates Beat Dodgers Behind Paul Skenes' Historic Night
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PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving the road team a 3-0 shutout victory at Dodgers Stadium.
The Pirates win their third shutout of the season, with left-handed pitcher Andrew Heaney leading the way in the 1-0 win vs. the Washington Nationals on April 17 and in the 3-0 victory vs. the Los Angeles Angels on April 23.
Pittsburgh is also 3-1 on this west coast road trip, defeating the Angels twice, and improve to 11-16 overall and 5-9 on the road in 2025.
The Pirates faced off against Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who came in with a 0.93 ERA in his first five starts.
Center fielder Oneil Cruz leadoff the game with a walk and then stole second base, giving him an MLB-leading 12 stolen bases.
Right fielder Bryan Reynolds flew out and designated hitter Andrew McCutchen struckout, but first baseman Enmamnuel Valdez singled, scoring Cruz and giving the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.
Third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes walked, putting two runners on, but left fielder Tommy Pham struckout, ending the inning.
The Pirates started the second inning well, with second baseman Adam Frazier walking and then shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, moving Frazier to second base with no outs.
Catcher Henry Davis grounded into a fielder's choice, with Frazier out at third base, Cruz struck out and then Reynolds grounded out to Yamamoto.
Skenes got through the first two innings allowing just one hit, but would give up a ground-rule double to Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages with one out in the third inning.
He would get Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani to groundout to him and then they got Pages in a rundown at third base, with Ohtani moving to second base. Skenes then got shortstop Mookie Betts to groundout to second base, ending the inning.
Dodgers first baseman hit a leadoff double off of Skenes, that turned into a triple after Reynolds failed to come up with it initally.
Skenes got a great first out, as Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández grounded to Hayes at third base. Skenes then struckout second baseman Tommy Edman and got catcher Will Smith to fly out to end the inning unscathed.
Davis opened up the fifth inning with a grounder to Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, whose throw Freeman couldn't come up with at first base and went back into the dugout, putting Davis at second base.
Cruz then came through with a single he hit 117 mph, bringing Davis around from second base and doubling the Pirates lead at 2-0.
Oneil Cruz is an All-Star. PERIOD.
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) April 26, 2025
A casual 117.6 MPH RBI to make it 2-0 (.820 xBA) pic.twitter.com/C2clNf5Fe7
Reynolds struckout swinging, but McCutchen singled and moved Cruz to third base. Valdez would ground into a fielder's choice, as Cruz made it safely to third base, but McCutchen was out athird base.
Hayes then came through for the Pirates with a single and making it 3-0 to the road team.
Ke'BRYAN HAYES MAKES IT 3-0!!!
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) April 26, 2025
BANGGG
106.5 MPH exit velocity, ⚡️83.9 MPH bat speed, .510 xBA pic.twitter.com/lYxQVDeQGf
Skenes kept dominating, as he struckout the side in the fifth inning and allowed just one more hit in his start.
He finished with 6.1 innings of work, five hits, no walks or runs allowed and nine strikeouts over 108 innings pitched, a career-high for him.
Left-handed pitcher Ryan Borucki got the next two outs in the seventh inning and right-handed pitcher Dennis Santana threw a scoreless eighth inning for the Pirates.
Right-handed pitcher David Bednar posted two strikeouts and earned the save, his first since Aug. 23, 2024, and the Pirates secured their first shutout over the Dodgers on the road since 2010.
The Pirates will look to win the series over the Dodgers on April 26 with first pitch set for 9:10 p.m. EST.
Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.