Paul Skenes' striking out Shohei Ohtani baffles fans in Dodgers' 3-0 loss vs. Pirates

In a marquee matchup between Pirates ace Paul Skenes and Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, the latter was made to look foolish. Fans were baffled by Skenes' nasty curve ball that made Ohtani's bat swing look like he's playing golf.

Skenes was clinical in his start under the bright lights of Los Angeles as he claimed his third win of the year. The young ace shutout the reigning champions in 6 and 1/3 innings of work, giving up just five hits while striking out nine batters.

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The event happened during the fifth inning of the contest. With a man in scoring position, two outs, and a 3-2 count, the NL Rookie of the Year got the NL MVP to bite to his curve ball. This set off a chain of surprised reactions on X.

"Nasty work," one fan said.

"Not easy to to strike out Ohtani," a fan shared.

"Got Shohei's number tonight," a fan pointed out.

It was a dismal shift for the Dodgers superstar as he finished the night at 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

"Not many people on this planet can make Ohtani look like that," a fan noted.

"People should know skenes no joke at pitching," one fan shared.

"SKENEY BABYYYYYY," a fan showed support for Skenes.

Through a consolidated effort, the Pirates overcame the reigning champions to open their three-game series in Hollywood.

Dodgers shutout by Pirates

In a surprising turn of events, the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers got shut down by the Paul Skenes-powered Pittsburgh Pirates. The champions could only muster up six base hits and went for an abysmal 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Skenes struck out nine Dodger batters in 6.1 innings while only giving up five base hits. The team's relief crew then held their end of the bargain as they would give up just one more hit without allowing any runs to finish the contest.

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a respectable outing himself. He gave up just three runs (one earned) on five base hits with five strikeouts in five innings. However, the offense just failed to click in the contest.

Emmanuel Valdez started the scoring in the first inning with an RBI single that drove home Oneil Cruz. Four innings later, Cruz himself recorded an RBI single that brought in Henry Davis. Finally, Ke'Bryan Hayes' RBI single in the same inning brought the lead to three. It would be the final score tallied in the game as the Pirates were victorious, 3-0.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago