PHOENIX -- Reigning National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes toyed with perfection, again, while dominating the Diamondbacks in a 1-0 victory Wednesday night.
Skenes retired the first 14 batters he faced before Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a dribbler down the third-base line with two outs in the fifth that Skenes fielded, but after planting and turning, his throw to first was wide as Gurriel reached on an infield hit.
Nolan Arenado followed with a sharp single to left, but Skenes retired Gabriel Moreno on a fly to right field to end the inning to preserve the Pirates’ lead.
Those were the only Arizona runners who reached off him.
It was nothing new.
Skenes retired the first 20 in a 6-0 victory over Milwaukee on April 24 before Jake Bauers singled with two outs in the seventh.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft has his way with Arizona in his short career.
Skenes has not given up a run in his last three starts against Arizona, beating them twice in 2025, 10-1 in Phoenix last May 28 and 6-0 at home on July 27. He was barely touchable -- the D-backs had seven hits in 12 2/3 innings, and Skenes had 16 strikeouts and one walk.
On Wednesday, He lowered his season ERA to 2.36 while striking out seven without a walk in eight innings. He threw 97 pitches, 65 for strikes, and left after a 17-pitch eighth that he finished with a signature flourish by striking out the side.
Skenes (5-2) recovered nicely from a 10-5 defeat to St. Louis his last time out, when he had a season-high nine strikeouts but gave up five runs (three earned) and two first-inning homers, two of the four total long balls he had given up in his first seven starts.
Skenes relied mostly on his 97-98 mph fastball, getting 13 outs on that pitch before recording his three eighth-inning strikeouts on a pair of changeups and a splitter. He got five outs on the changeup and three on the splitter.
The D-backs had nothing close to a hit until Gurriel’s chopper. Gurriel’s 98.2 mph line drive to center to end the second was their lone hard-hit ball until Arenado’s single in the fifth.
Brandon Lowe’s long home run in the top of the first, measured at 435 feet over the center-field wall, accounted for the game’s only run. Gregory Soto pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.