Cardinals tag Pirates ace Paul Skenes for five runs en route to 5-3 victory

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Apr 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — On a Tuesday night at PNC Park when the temperature at first pitch read 38 degrees and with the Pirates' fire-balling ace, Paul Skenes, on the mound, the Cardinals tagged the reigning National League Rookie of the Year for an early lead and held it.

The Cardinals pushed across three runs in the third inning off Skenes, which was highlighted by a two-run triple from Victor Scott II. They tacked on an additional two runs vs. the righty in the sixth inning with RBIs from Alec Burleson and Pedro Pages to leave Skenes, who held a 1.96 ERA in 133 innings as a rookie in 2024 and held a 1.46 ERA in 12 1/3 innings to begin his second season, with a career-high five runs allowed in a 5-3 win to even a three-game series.

Skenes' loss was the fourth of his career and second vs. the Cardinals.

Opposite of Skenes, Cardinals starter Sonny Gray delivered five innings and allowed one run on 71 pitches (44 strikes) to improve him to a 2-0 record. Gray allowed three hits, struck out four batters, and did not allow a walk. The lone run he surrendered came on a solo home run from Bryan Reynolds that led off the fourth inning.

The start lowered Gray’s ERA to 4.50. He’s logged 16 innings through three starts. His exit came from the game came after the Cardinals taxed Skenes for two runs and forced the righty to throw 22 pitches in the sixth inning.

He was replaced by Steven Matz, who provided 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Kyle Leahy followed behind Matz with 1 2/3 scoreless innings. JoJo Romero allowed two runs in 1/3 of an and Phil Maton recorded the final two outs for save as the Pirates' threatened a comeback with two runs in the ninth inning.

The win for the Cardinals (5-6) comes after they were 1-6 in their previous seven contests heading into Tuesday.

Getting to Skenes early

Back in the starting lineup and catching after getting a day to rest Monday, Pages was the first Cardinal to get a hit off the Skenes and crossed the plate as the game’s first run three at-bats later.

Pages lined a first-pitch splitter to right field for a single and advanced to second base with one out in the inning when Masyn Winn singled to left field on a 94.2-mph splitter Skenes placed low-and-inside.

Scott capitalized on the scoring chance and flashed his speed in the process.

The 24-year-old lined a 98.3-mph fastball from Skenes that rolled to the outfield where it was scooped up by center fielder Oneil Cruz. Scott raced to third base and slid into the bag well before the relay throw to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead and secure him the first triple of his career.

After Willson Contreras struck out, Brendan Donovan continued the Cardinals’ early success when he singled on a line drive to left field to score Scott and push their lead to 3-0.

Gray gets through 5

On the mound for a third time this season, Gray began his start by working through three scoreless innings and allowing a single in that span before surrendering a leadoff home run to Reynolds to begin the fourth inning.

In his first inning of work, Gray struck out Jack Suwinski, looking, on a sinker and, after a groundout against Reynolds, notched his second strikeout when he froze Cruz on a sinker placed high and inside.

Following a one-out singled allowed to Enmanuel Valdez in the second inning, the righty retired the next five Pirates hitters he faced before allowing the solo homer, which marked the fourth home run he’s allowed in three starts.

Gray’s fastball, which was used 12 times in the outing, averaged 91.1 mph, per Statcast. His curveball accounted for 20% of his pitch usage and got two of the four swings and misses he induced.

Six of the 13 balls put in play against Gray had exit velocities below 95 mph, which is the threshold for a ball in play to register as hard contact. Three of those had exit velocities below 70 mph.

Getting to Skenes again

The Cardinals pushed their lead from 3-1 to 5-1 by playing a pair of runs in a seventh inning that began with a leadoff double from Donovan and a walk by Nolan Arenado.

Batting with runners on first and third base after Donovan advanced on a wild pitch from Skenes, Burleson singled to right field to score Donovan and move Arenado to third base.

With the Pirates middle infielder aligned at double-play depth following a strikeout from Jordan Walker, a soft ground ball to second base from Pages left Valdez with recording the out at first as his only option and allowed Arenado to score.

Scott’s start at leadoff

While the Cardinals' everyday leadoff hitter, Lars Nootbaar, got a breather after starting in each of his club’s first 10 games, Scott ascended atop manager Oliver Marmol’s batting order for his second career start from the leadoff spot.

The speedster tallied two extra-base hits and scored one run.

After he collected his triple in the third inning, Scott flashed his speed once again on a double to the left-center-field gap.

Through 10 games to begin his second season in the majors, Scott is batting .297 with a .372 on-base percentage and seven RBIs.