Phillies Break Two Paul Skenes Streaks To Sweep Pirates

He entered Sunday with two impressive streaks of not issuing a walk and not allowing a run. As shared by Colin Beazley on X, both were broken in the top of the fifth inning. 

His streak of not issuing a walk reached 39 innings, which was the longest since Bob Friend in 1963. The scoreless innings streak reached 20, which was the longest of his career to this point.

Adolis Garcia drew a walk to start the top of the fifth inning. Bryson Stott was struck out on a foul tip after that, but J.T. Realmuto was able to hit a single that pushed Garcia to third base.

He would come around to score during the next at-bat when Justin Crawford hit a groundout to shortstop Konnor Griffin, who made a nice diving play before making the throw over to first base.

A second run could come across when Trea Turner hit an RBI single to score Realmuto. Skenes would end the inning by getting Kyle Schwarber to strike out swinging for the second time in the afternoon.

The Phillies would pile on some insurance runs in the top of the sixth inning, chasing Skenes from the game before he could record an out in the frame. Bryce Harper took him deep as the leadoff hitter in the inning, and Alec Bohm followed up with a single.

Brandon Marsh hit a double to deep left center field, which prompted manager Don Kelly to go to the bullpen, calling upon Isaac Mattson to relieve Skenes after 5+ innings. Both inherited runners could eventually come around to score when Stott hit an RBI double following Garcia being hit by a pitch.

Skenes finished the afternoon with 5+ innings pitched, allowing six hits and one walk that resulted in five earned runs scoring against him, to go along with seven strikeouts.

Philadelphia is now riding a five-game winning streak heading into its series with the Cincinnati Reds and is above the .500 mark for the first time since April 7, when they were 6-5.

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