Rays 3, Pirates 1: Rays staff bests Skenes in series finale

A winning road trip!

After a rare one-run loss on Saturday, the Rays were back at PNC Park looking to close out their nine-game road trip with a second consecutive series victory. They did just that with a 3-1 win, improving to 38-40 and securing a winning road trip.

Sunday’s game presented the least-promising pitching matchup for the Rays, with Aaron Civale going up against rookie phenom Paul Skenes. Civale’s second season with the club has not gotten any better for the veteran right-hander, and entering the day his ERA was 5.42. On the other side, Skenes has lived up to all of his prospect hype, posting a 2.29 ERA and 34.4% strikeout rate through his first seven big league starts.

Amed Rosario and Brandon Lowe were both hit by pitches on Saturday and were absent from today’s lineup. Instead, Taylor Walls and Richie Palacios manned the middle infield.

First pitch home run off of a 100 mph Skenes’ fastball is not what I had on my bingo card for today’s game, but Yandy Diaz did just that when he banged one off the right field foul pole.

Skenes allowed the leadoff homer and not much else, going a career-high seven innings, striking out eight batters. His final pitch was a 102 mph fastball blown by Alex Jackson. He retired the last 11 Rays he faced.

The rookie relied on his plus-plus fastball and “splinker” to manage the Rays lineup, and he was able to pick up 13 whiffs on 98 pitches.

Aaron Civale only pitched five innings in this game, but still put together one of his best outings of the season. The only run he gave up came on a Bryan Reynolds solo home run in the fourth. He recorded three strikeouts and walked just one.

Civale used all of his pitches to good effect during the start, but his cutter is the one that stood out. He threw it 15 times, mainly to left-handed hitters, getting seven for called strikes and three whiffs.

Aaron Civale has a 14.10 ERA in his third trip through the order this season, so Kevin Cash smartly opted to go his bullpen in a tie game. Garrett Cleaving got the sixth and the start of the seventh before making way for Kevin Kelly, and they kept the game tied.

The breakthrough came in the eighth inning for the Rays against Colin Holderman, who came in to relieve Skenes. Diaz led off with a single, his third hit of the day, and was lifted for Jose Caballero on the bases. A Josh Lowe single to right, also his third hit, moved Caballero to third. Randy Arozarena hit one deep enough to center to drive in the go-ahead run with a sac fly.

Insurance came on an opposite field single from Richie Palacios, scoring Josh Lowe.

Jason Adam came in for the eighth inning and thought he got out of it with an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, but replay review controversially overturned the call, saying Richie Palacios never made contact with the second base bag while simultaneously possessing the baseball. Adam had to come back out, walked one more batter, but eventually stranded the two runners to get out of the inning.

Pete Fairbanks naturally got the ball in the ninth, and retired the Buccos in quick succession, finishing off Jared Triolo with a 99 mph fastball right off the outside corner.

The Rays will host the AL West-leading Mariners in a three-game set starting Monday. Taj Bradley will get the ball in the opener, going against Bryan Woo.