‘You See What Good Teams Can Do Out There,’ Reactions to Pirates’ 10-Run 6th Inning
Photo provided by Eddie Provident PITTSBURGH — Scoring runs behind eventual National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes proved to be an incredibly difficult task for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. That hasn’t been the case so far this year, and Monday night’s win over the Washington Nationals — and one inning in particular — tells all about the complete flip of the script. The Pirates (10-6) scored 10 runs and sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning and went on to rout the Nationals (7-9) by a final score of 16-5.
Skenes (3-1), who held the Nationals to one run on one hit in six innings, knew his outing was done as the runs continued to pile up. “I mean that long inning cost me going back out there,” Skenes joked after the game. “Just took forever, which is what you want.
Went through a couple pitchers that inning. I feel like that inning everybody just pulling the rope and passing it off to the next guy. It was cool to watch.
” The inning started with a single and a stolen base from nine-hole hitter Henry Davis. After Oneil Cruz walked and Brandon Lowe singled, Bryan Reynolds cleared the bases with a triple into the right field corner. Ryan O’Hearn followed with a double to deep center and Konnor Griffin chipped in an RBI single two batters later.
After the lineup flipped back over, Cruz drove in Spencer Horwitz and Griffin with a single to right, which simultaneously pushed Jake Mangum to third base. “Hitting’s contagious,” said Lowe. “When multiple guys are going well, everybody is itching to get up there and ready to go.