Paul Skenes excels as Pirates shut out Rockies

Paul Skenes further bolstered his case for the National League Cy Young Award by tossing seven shutout innings while allowing only three hits to lead the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon.
Skenes (8-9) led the Pirates to their fourth consecutive win and a sweep of the three-game series against Colorado by striking out seven and not issuing a walk on 101 pitches.
It was the Rockies’ 13th shutout loss.
Brenton Doyle had one of Colorado’s four hits and the only extra-base hit off Skenes. Doyle’s ground-rule double in the seventh gave the Rockies their only baserunner in scoring position off Skenes, who wiped it off the board by striking out Ezequiel Tovar to end the inning.
Skenes lowered his ERA to 2.07 and helped the Pirates secure their 16th shutout victory.
Skenes’ career ERA is 2.02, which is behind only Vida Blue’s 2.01 for the best over a pitcher’s first 50 starts since 1920.
It was Skenes’ 11th start where he has not allowed an earned run and the third time he’s tossed seven or more innings without yielding an earned run.
Pittsburgh pitching continued its recent stretch of dominance as it has allowed only two runs over its past four games.
The Pirates scored all of their runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, highlighted by a three-run home run by Jared Triolo — his fifth of the season — off Rockies rookie McCade Brown (0-1), who made his major league debut on Sunday.
Brown worked his way through the first three innings virtually unscathed before walking Bryan Reynolds to open the fourth. He then allowed a single to Andrew McCutchen two batters later. After striking out Jack Suwinski, Triolo turned on Brown’s first pitch — an 82-mph slider — and sent it over the wall in left center. Triolo had two hits and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with an RBI double to knock Brown out of the game.
Tovar, Hunter Goodman and Kyle Karros had the only other hits for Colorado, which lost its fourth in a row.
To make room for Brown on the roster, the Rockies optioned left-handed pitcher Lucas Gilbreath to Triple-A Albuquerque and transferred right-handed pitcher Dugan Darnell to the 60-day injured list.