Paul Skenes took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning and Konnor Griffin celebrated his 20th birthday with his first career homer to pace the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates over the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0 on Friday in the opener of the three-game series.
Skenes (4-1) retired the first 20 hitters before Jake Bauers lined a 3-2 pitch for a single up the middle with two outs in the seventh for the Brewers’ only hit of the game. The Pirates, who played their first game in 1882, have yet to throw a perfect game. Their last no-hitter came in 1997.
Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, struck out seven without a walk in a dominant 93-pitch outing. Mason Montgomery followed with a perfect eighth and Isaac Mattson preserved the one-hitter despite a two-out walk in the ninth.
The Pirates, who had lost eight consecutive games to the Brewers, took a 3-0 lead off starter Brandon Woodruff (2-1) with singles runs in the third, fourth and fifth.
Griffin, who also had two singles and drove in three runs, staked the Pirates to a 1-0 lead with one out in the third with a 386-foot shot to right-center.
The Pirates added a run in the fourth when Brandon Lowe doubled to open and Bryan Reynolds walked. Lowe scored on Nick Gonzales’ two-out single, but Reynolds caught between second and third for the final out.
Pittsburgh made it 3-0 in the fifth when Spencer Horwitz walked and moved to third on Griffin’s single. Horwitz scored on Oneil Cruz’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Woodruff allowed three runs on five hits in five innings, striking out three and walking two in a 71-pitch outing as Milwaukee lost its third straight.
The Pirates continued the single-run approach in the sixth against Shane Drohan, recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Nashville. Ryan O’Hearn doubled with one out and scored on Horwitz’s two-out single to center.
Pittsburgh added a pair of unearned runs in the eighth to make it 6-0. The Pirates loaded the bases on a two-out single by O’Hearn and back-to-back infield errors. Griffin followed with a two-run single to center.
