Cy Young favorite Paul Skenes on the mound for the Pirates, plus the Rockies’ road offense, equaled a predictable mismatch.
The final: Pittsburgh 4, Colorado 0 on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park as the Pirates completed a three-game sweep in which they outscored the Rockies 18-1.
Skenes pitched seven scoreless innings, allowed just three hits, walked none and fanned seven. The right-hander has a 2.20 ERA through his first 50 career starts, the second-lowest in the Live Ball Era (1920) behind only Vida Blue’s 2.01 ERA with the Athletics from 1969-72.
Meanwhile, the Rockies lost their fourth straight game. In the three games at PNC, the Rockies managed just 13 hits, showing that while the offense has made significant strides since the All-Star break, it’s still often a feeble unit away from Coors Field.
"Skenes is one of the best in the game and he showed it today," manager Warren Schaeffer told reporters in Pittsburgh. "Four-seamer, sinker, sweeper, changeup, curve, he put the ball where he wanted to and climbed the ladder when he had to. He just pitched, man. He got us today. We didn't have an answer for him."
Skenes got himself out of a minor mess in the third inning when rookie third baseman Kyle Karros hit a leadoff single. After Karros advanced to second on a fielder’s choice, Skenes picked him off. Then Skenes struck out Tyler Freeman to end the inning.
Colorado, its rotation plagued by injuries and terrible performances, started right-hander McCade Brown, who made his major league debut after getting called up from Double-A Hartford. He gave up four runs on five hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.
McCade kept the Pirates in check for three innings before they figured him out in the fourth. Bryan Reynolds drew a leadoff walk, Andrew McCutchen singled to left, and Jared Triolo mashed a two-out, three-run homer to left. Then Brown walked Henry Davis, who stole second and scored on Isiah Kiner-Falefa's double to center to make it 4-0.
"I thought (Brown) was good," Schaeffer said. "It was good to see him come up and do that. He looked poised, he looked calm. Just the leadoff walk in the fourth with the three-run homer to Triolo, with two outs, got him. But other than that, I thought it was a very promising first outing for the kid. I'm happy for him."
Brown became the 13th Rockies player to debut this season, setting a franchise record. Twelve Rockies players debuted in 2014, '16, and '24. Brown was 4-2 with a 2.47 ERA, 30 walks, and 105 strikeouts in 20 combined starts at high-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford this season.
The Rockies fell to 37-94 and moved a step closer to their third consecutive 100-loss season. The last team to do that was the Astros, who intentionally tanked their way to the bottom in 2011 (56-106), '12 (55-107) and '13 (51-111).
Rockies starters have a collective ERA of 6.67, by far the worst in the majors. The Pirates, playing at pitcher-friendly PNC Park, rank ninth-best with a 3.82 starters ERA.
Skenes is pitching in another dimension. This season, he has a 2.07 ERA with 181 strikeouts over 161 innings. He's on track to join the Mets' Dwight Gooden as the only pitchers to win Rookie of the Year and then capture the Cy Young Award in their second season.
"It's amazing what he's able to do," Pirates manager Don Kelly told reporters. "The velo and the fastball command were there today. He's always in control, which is really impressive."
The Rockies, who completed a stretch of 17 consecutive days of games played, are off on Monday before opening a three-game series at Houston on Tuesday.
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