Billed as a matchup between the National League’s best arms, both vying for the league’s Cy Young award, Friday night lived up to its pitchers’ duel expectations.
Enter 22-year-old flamethrower Paul Skenes. He grew up in Fullerton. He began his meteoric rise to household-name status at nearby El Toro High.
Coming off his NL Rookie of the Year award-winning 2024 campaign, in his second-career start at Dodger Stadium, the former Louisiana State star harnessed the “plus-plus stuff” — emphasized by his 99.4 mph first-inning strikeout of Freddie Freeman, dazzling curveballs and stand out “splinker” — that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts marveled about pregame.
Skenes, the No. 1 selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, tossed 6.1 scoreless frames to seal the Dodgers’ 3-0 loss on Friday night. The Dodgers never drummed up run support for their ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, succumbing to a shutout for the second time in 2025 and falling into a three-game losing streak for the first time since a July 30-Aug. 2 stretch last season.
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Freddie Freeman hit Skenes’ seemingly only mistake pitch of the day — a hanging curveball over the center of the plate — into the right field corner for a double in the fourth inning. He advanced to third on an error on the same play, but being 90 feet away from home didn’t matter. Skenes set the next three batters down in order to maintain his shutout outing.
In the fifth inning, after Andy Pages reached on a double for the second time in the game, Skenes struck out Shohei Ohtani on a full-count curveball that sent the Dodgers star into a twisting, off-balance backswing and Pirates catcher Henry Davis fist pumping toward the mound in celebration.
Skenes, a highlight for the struggling Pirates (11-16), simply walked back to the dugout — his performance Friday was business-like — allowing five hits, while striking out nine and walking zero over 108 pitches. Roberts said the Dodgers (16-10) wouldn’t be able to “paper-knife” Skenes, pointing at how difficult it is to rally hits against the 6-foot-6 righty.
And he was right. Besides Pages and Freeman, the Dodgers tallied just one more hit to place their total at five. The Pirates bullpen allowed just one hit during the final 2.2 frames.
It wasn’t so long ago that Yamamoto was in a similar position.
Three days after he turned 19-years-old, the Orix Buffaloes thrust Yamamoto into big-league action. Much like Skenes in Pittsburgh, his youth did not hinder his success — building a trophy case that included three Triple Crowns and three Sawamura awards (the Japanese equivalent to the Cy Young) before heading off to the U.S. in 2024.
“The bottom line is that he has shown to be the best pitcher in a particular league multiple times,” Roberts said Friday, before Yamamoto toed the mound.
But Yamamoto didn’t have his best stuff against the Pirates. He issued four-plus walks for the first time since August 2, 2022 — against the Seibu Lions in Nippon Professional Baseball — and finished his outing after five innings and 94 pitches (54 of which came in the first two innings).
Both of Pittsburgh’s fifth-inning runs were unearned. Third baseman Max Muncy sailed a ball wide to first base after collecting a near-the-foul-line ground ball, allowing Davis to reach base with no outs and advance to second after the ball scattered into the camera well. Three hits later, the Pirates (11-16) were up three.
Yamamoto still struck out five and kept the Dodgers in the contest despite being below the best he’s shown at Dodger Stadium this year. His earned-run average rose a few points, but remained at a National League low 1.06, second best to only Texas Rangers righty Tyler Mahle.
Injury updates
Roberts said before Friday’s game that the pitching staff “dodged a bullet” with southpaw Blake Snell’s latest injury update. Snell, who was shut down from his throwing program Wednesday, underwent an MRI on Thursday morning — which came back with no new findings of damage on his left shoulder.
Snell’s next steps will likely include an injection, Roberts said, before resuming a throwing program. Before heading to the 15-day injured list on April 6, Snell held a 1-0 record with a 2.00 earned-run average through his first two starts of the season.
“I don’t know the extent of the length of time,” Roberts said, “but just knowing that there’s no damage is certainly a big relief.”
Roberts also provided updates on bullpen arms Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech. Treinen (low-grade right forearm sprain) has yet to begin a throwing program, while Kopech (right shoulder impingement) — who joined the Dodgers last year in a trade-deadline three-team deal with the White Sox and Cardinals — tossed a 30-pitch bullpen session Thursday and will do the same Monday before a potential minor-league rehab assignment.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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