Paul Skenes fanned 11 across six no-hit innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the host Chicago Cubs 9-3 on Friday afternoon.
Skenes (1-0) earned his first career win while making his second major league start. He struck out the first seven batters he faced and was perfect until walking Michael Busch with one out in the fifth.
Busch was the only one to reach base against Skenes.
Chicago did make Skenes work, though, preventing him from going the distance. He threw 100 pitches, 67 for strikes, and was replaced by Carmen Mlodzinski ahead of the home half of the seventh.
Mlodzinski got the first two outs of the inning before Christopher Morel broke up the combined no-hitter with a single to right.
Connor Joe finished with three hits and Jared Triolo and Yasmani Grandal each had two to go along with three RBIs for Pittsburgh, which has taken the first two games of the four-game series.
Miguel Amaya hit a solo home run for the Cubs. Morel finished with two hits, including a two-run double.
Triolo opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the third — his second of the season — before Pittsburgh broke the game open with a three-run fourth.
Nick Gonzales ripped a one-out double and came around to score on Grandal’s two-out single to make it 3-0. Rowdy Tellez then singled to put runners on first and second.
Triolo followed with a line-drive single, and Grandal was waved around third on the play. Chicago center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong tried to cut down Grandal at the plate, but his throw sailed well over catcher Amaya, allowing Tellez to also score.
In the fifth, Gonzales pushed the Pirates’ lead to 6-0 with a sacrifice fly. Two batters later, Grandal smacked a two-run single to knock Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks out of the game.
Hendricks (0-4) was charged with eight runs (seven earned) and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings. He didn’t issue a walk and struck out four as his ERA ballooned to 10.57.
Andrew McCutchen blasted a solo shot in the eighth for Pittsburgh. It was his sixth homer of the season.
Chicago did all of its scoring in the bottom of the frame, as Amaya went deep for the second time this season and Morel drove in two runs with his double.
Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, has struck out 18 in 10 innings in his two outings, both against the Cubs.
–Field Level Media
