Paul Skenes threw six shutout innings to help the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-0 win against the visiting Cincinnati Reds in the opener of their four-game series on Thursday evening.

Skenes (8-2) limited the Reds to two hits in the 17th start of his rookie season. The right-hander struck out nine and walked one on 87 pitches.

Bryan De La Cruz had three hits and three RBIs, Bryan Reynolds had two hits, an RBI and a run scored and Yasmani Grandal homered for the Pirates, who had lost three of four.

Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo (9-6) breezed through the first four innings before running into trouble in the six-run fifth. He allowed five runs on just two hits, struck out nine and walked three in 4 2/3 innings.

Lodolo gave up a two-out walk to Connor Joe in the second, but that was the only baserunner until De La Cruz hit a ground-rule double down the right field line with two outs in the fourth.

Lodolo couldn’t get out of the fifth inning, however.

He issued a one-out walk to Jared Triolo, a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Michael A. Taylor and then hit Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a pitch to load the bases.

Reynolds hit a grounder up the middle that shortstop Elly De La Cruz stopped. He tried a backhand flip to second for the forceout, but was late, allowing Triolo to score for a 1-0 lead.

Kiner-Falefa continued around second base on the play and headed toward third, which was still occupied by Taylor. Instead of running toward third base, Reds second baseman Santiago Espinal threw the ball to third, allowing Kiner-Falefa to safely return to second and keep the bases loaded.

Joey Bart was then hit by a pitch, forcing in a run to make it 2-0 and end Lodolo’s night.

Jakob Junis came in and Bryan De La Cruz greeted him with a double over the head of right fielder Amed Rosario, scoring all three runners for a 5-0 lead.

Oneil Cruz followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-0.

Grandal blasted a solo home run in the sixth to extend the lead to 7-0.

–Field Level Media