Paul Skenes flirted with a no-hitter for the second consecutive start, struck out 10 and allowed two hits over eight scoreless innings to lead the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Skenes (6-2), the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, held the Rockies scoreless for 6 1/3 innings until Mickey Moniak looped a ball that dropped just out of the reach of a diving Oneil Cruz in center field.
Skenes had a perfect game going for 4 2/3 innings until he hit Troy Johnston on the foot. Henry Davis quickly erased the miscue by throwing out Johnston trying to steal second.
Pirates closer Gregory Soto ran into trouble in the ninth after allowing a pinch-hit double to Jordan Beck and an RBI double to Hunter Goodman with two outs. But his next pitch induced a groundout by TJ Rumfield to lock up his fourth save of the season.
Skenes has delivered back-to-back starts of eight scoreless innings with only two hits allowed. He has not allowed a run in four of his past five starts, lowered his ERA to 1.98 and did not walk a batter for the fifth consecutive start.
Skenes looked comfortable immediately, striking out the first six batters he faced.
Although Cruz couldn’t snare Moniak’s fly ball to preserve the no-hit bid, he continued to break out of his recent slump with three hits and also scored twice.
Cruz hit a pair of doubles off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen (2-5), who gave up two runs on five hits and two walks and struck out five over five innings.
Johnston doubled off Skenes with one out in the top of the eighth for Colorado, which lost its third in a row. Skenes bounced back by inducing a flyout by Will Castro and a groundout by Ezequiel Tovar.
Pittsburgh’s Nick Gonzales had two hits and an RBI and Spencer Horwitz also had two hits. Brandon Lowe and Bryan Reynolds each drove in a run.
