Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, the 2025 National League Cy Young winner, bounced back from a rough Opening Day with a dominant outing in the team's home opener, leading to a 7-1 victory over the San Diego Padres at PNC Park on Tuesday night. The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, allowing two hits, one run, two walks and six strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings to improve to 2-1, helping the Pirates move to 7-4 early in the season.
Skenes set the tone by striking out the first two batters in a 1-2-3 first inning. He walked Manny Machado to open the second but retired the next three, including Xander Bogaerts on strikes. Skenes fanned two more in the third on just 12 pitches and retired 11 Padres in row through the fifth, using only 36 pitches over those three frames. His four-seam fastball averaged 96.7 mph, with command improving on 87 total pitches (53 strikes). The Pirates broke through with two outs in the bottom of the fifth when Oneil Cruz drove home a pair with an opposite-field double, making Skenes eligible for his second win. The no-hit bid ended in the sixth with a single by Fernando Tatis Jr. through the left side. In the seventh, Bogaerts homered on a high fastball—Skenes' final pitch and the first allowed by a Pirates starter this season—before manager Don Kelly pulled him to adhere to a pre-announced 100-pitch limit while building his workload. Skenes has now allowed just two runs over his past 11 1/3 innings.
