Paul Skenes kept the American League’s top team in relative check for six innings, and the Pittsburgh Pirates took advantage of some sloppy play by the Toronto Blue Jays to pull away for a 5-2 victory on Monday night.
Skenes bounced back from a rare shaky performance in his previous start to limit the American League-leading Blue Jays to two runs over six innings. The burly 23-year-old struck out eight against one walk as his ERA ticked up to 2.16.
Evan Sisk (1-1) picked up his first big-league victory with a scoreless seventh. Dennis Santana worked the ninth for his eighth save as the Pirates won for just the second time in nine games.
Henry Davis doubled off Yariel Rodríguez (2-1), leading off the seventh, and scored on a wild pitch by Brendon Little to put Pittsburgh in front to stay. Spencer Horwitz, a former Toronto first baseman, had two hits for the Pirates.
The Blue Jays touched Skenes for two runs in the third inning on a fielder’s choice RBI by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a run-scoring single by Bo Bichette.
Guerrero later exited in the fifth inning with left hamstring tightness, not long after going into a full split to field a throw from Bichette at short to end the bottom of the fourth.
Tempers flare as benches temporarily clear in Pittsburgh
Toronto committed three errors — including one in the eighth that led directly to a run — in addition to Little’s wild pitch during an unusually chippy night. The benches cleared briefly in the seventh when Pittsburgh’s Tommy Pham jawed with Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman after getting walked.
Heineman told Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling post-game that he didn’t say anything to Pham and that Pham didn’t say anything to him.
It was weird, man. It was weird. Unprovoked and super weird,” Heineman said.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider also weighed in on the incident after the game, saying, “I’m not worried about Tommy Pham’s opinion about anything, really. I’m worried about our defence. I’m worried about our at-bats.”
The back and forth didn’t stop there, however, as Pham took to X in the aftermath.
“(Complaining) about a ball not being called a strike to the umpire when it’s clearly below the zone and away is disrespectful not only to the umpire but the hitter as well,” Pham wrote in a reply to a post sharing Heineman’s comments from MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “So like I said when I flipped the bat (expletive) him… dude has two years in the show I know the zone.”
Toronto’s Max Scherzer (3-2, 3.83 ERA) goes for his 220th career victory on Tuesday when the three-time Cy Young winner faces Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller (5-11, 4.13).
With files from Sportsnet staff
