PITTSBURGH — It rained most of the morning then on and off Thursday afternoon in Pittsburgh. About two hours before game time, though, the rain stopped and the tarp came off at PNC Park.
The clouds over the Dodgers never parted.
Dominated by pitchers with 5.00 ERAs in recent series (Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes in San Diego, Zac Gallen and Eduardo Rodriguez with Arizona), the Dodgers weren’t ready for the higher degree of difficulty presented by Cy Young Award contender Paul Skenes. They managed just two hits in six innings against him and were shut out into the ninth inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat them for the third straight night, 5-3.
The sweep at PNC Park was only the Pirates’ second over the Dodgers since the stadium opened in 2011 (they also swept a series in August 2015). But the Pirates have won the home series against the Dodgers each of the past four seasons.
The Dodgers weren’t just swept by the Pirates, they were dominated. They never held a lead for a single inning and were nearly shut out in back-to-back games by a last-place Pirates team whose approximately $87 million payroll might cover the fuel bill for the two planes the Dodgers use on every trip.
The Dodgers (78-62) have now lost 12 of their past 16 games against teams with losing records. They NL West lead over the second-place San Diego Padres is two games with 22 games left in the regular season.
Skenes retired the first eight Dodgers in order, striking out half of them. Dalton Rushing broke the spell with a drive off the very top of the wall in right-center field with two outs in the third inning. That double was followed by a walk of Shohei Ohtani, giving the Dodgers their best – only – scoring chance against Skenes. Mookie Betts bounced into a forceout to end the inning.
Nine of the next 10 Dodgers went down against Skenes, only Miguel Rojas breaking the march with a two-out single in the fifth inning.
Dodgers starter Blake Snell couldn’t uphold his side of an anticipated pitching matchup between a two-time past winner of the Cy Young Award (Snell) and a virtual certain future winner (Skenes).
Snell gave up 12 baserunners in his five innings – nine hits and three walks. He danced away from damage in the first two innings, stranding two baserunners in the first and leaving the bases loaded in the second.
But the Pirates (64-77) got to him for a run in the third inning on two singles wrapped around two wild pitches. Things got worse in a four-run fifth inning. The Pirates packed the inning with four of their hits, including a two-run double by Nick Yorke.
The Dodgers avoided a second consecutive shutout when Betts led off the ninth inning with a home run. Three consecutive singles produced another run and Rojas’ RBI single made it a three-run ninth before they hopped on those planes to Baltimore.
More to come on this story.