Gavin Lux continued his strong performance with three RBIs, Teoscar Hernandez hit a home run, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated rookie pitcher Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1 on Saturday night.
Hernandez had three hits for the Dodgers, who won their fifth game in the last seven. The only two losses during this stretch were to the top team in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies.
Skenes, who started the All-Star Game for the National League, had given up eight home runs before Saturday, but none were hit off his “splinker,” a mix of a splitter and a sinker, until Hernandez hit a home run with it in the fifth inning.
“I’m not going to stop throwing it,” Skenes said after the game. “He won the Home Run Derby this year, right? He won it for a reason so you gotta tip your cap. I’m gonna keep attacking guys with that pitch.”
Skenes (6-2) allowed a career-high four runs on six hits over six innings, with one walk and eight strikeouts.
The hard-throwing right-hander has allowed more than two runs in only three of his 15 starts, with two of those three coming against the Dodgers. He had previously beaten Los Angeles on June 5, giving up three runs over five innings.
“Just looking at it as objectively as possible, obviously the line wasn’t fantastic but there was a lot of good, I thought,” Skenes said.
“Honestly, a lot of the pitches that I didn’t execute as well as I could have or should have ended up as outs, and that’s how it goes. I won’t lose any sleep over the hits they got or the home run. They’re good hitters.”
The Dodgers won despite losing rookie right-hander River Ryan after 4 2/3 scoreless innings due to right forearm tightness.
Ryan left during an at-bat against Michael A. Taylor in the fifth inning when he flinched and held his right arm close to his side after a pitch.
“I definitely didn’t want to come out of the game; I wanted to finish,” said Ryan, who is set for more tests with team doctors on Sunday morning. “But they saw me grimace on the mound and they’re not going to take any chances, so they decided to end it there.”
Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a home run in the ninth inning for the Pirates, who matched a season-high with their sixth straight loss. It was Hayes’ fourth home run of the season.
Lux had an RBI double to left-center field off Skenes in the first inning and a two-run single off him in the third. After a slow start this season, Lux now has hits in 15 of the 20 games since the All-Star break.
In his first matchup against Skenes in June, Lux struck out in his first two at-bats.
“I think I’m in a better frame of mind,” Lux said. “Since we faced him in early June, just having more at-bats and feeling confident, seeing more pitches. The second time you see a guy, hopefully you see him better than the first time.”
After Ryan left the game, left-hander Alex Vesia took over and pitched a scoreless inning before right-hander Michael Kopech (3-8) pitched 1 1/3 innings to get the win.
The Dodgers made it 4-0 in the fifth inning when Hernandez hit a home run off Skenes to right-center field, his 26th of the season. Skenes has given up nine home runs, with three of them coming in his two starts against Los Angeles.
“The ball Teoscar hit was a mistake that stayed up,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.
“The two pitches to Lux, they weren’t bad pitches and he put pretty good swings on them. (Skenes) didn’t give up a ton of hard contact other than that.”
The Dodgers’ defense also played well, with center fielder Kevin Kiermaier making a running catch and crashing into the wall to take away extra bases from Rowdy Tellez in the fourth inning.
Third baseman Enrique Hernandez made a leaping catch near the foul line in the sixth inning to take away at least a double from Joey Bart.
