Paul Skenes has dominated the Colorado Rockies in his home park, but his one start in Denver didn’t go as well.

The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander has made one start at Coors Field when he allowed four runs in five innings on Aug. 2, 2025 in a game Colorado won, 8-5.

Skenes (6-6, 2.85 ERA) gets another shot in Denver when he takes the mound Saturday night in the second contest of a three-game series against the Rockies.

Colorado counters with its best starter this season, Tomoyuki Sugano (7-4, 4.79).

The Rockies took the opener on Friday night, 4-3, holding on after Pittsburgh loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth inning.

Skenes is facing Colorado for the fourth time in his short career and is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in those outings. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning his last start against the Rockies, a 3-1 Pirates win in Pittsburgh on May 12.

Mickey Moniak broke up the no-hit bid with a one-out hit that night and Skenes left after eight shutout innings. It marked the last time he pitched beyond the sixth inning this season – or earned a win. The two-time All-Star lost his next three starts, and he has been victimized by little run support and a faltering bullpen in his three June outings.

He has allowed five earned runs this month but is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA. In his last start, against Miami on Sunday, he matched a season high with 10 strikeouts over six innings but was tagged with the loss after giving up two solo homers.

His teammates managed to put across just two runs in a 4-2 loss.

“It’s baseball,” Skenes said after the game. “I’ve dealt with it before. It’s a team sport. It’s just the nature of the game.”

Sugano, meanwhile, has received plenty of run support in June. He has won all three of his starts this month despite posting a 6.60 ERA and allowing eight runs – six earned – Sunday against the Athletics in Las Vegas.

He benefited from Colorado’s franchise-record 23 runs in the victory but he will likely have to pitch better with Skenes going for the Pirates. It will also be his first time facing Pittsburgh in his two-year major league career.

It will also be the first time a few Rockies’ players will see the Pirates. Recent call-ups Cole Carrigg and Sterlin Thompson are part of Colorado’s youth movement and each has made an impact in a small sample size.

Thompson hit his first two big-league homers in one game against the Chicago Cubs this week and Carrigg had three home runs in his first 36 at-bats and has flashed some impressive defense. He made a running catch into the ivy at Wrigley Field in Tuesday night’s 5-2 win, saving a run.

“It felt like brick – it was definitely pretty hard, not much cushion with the ivy,” Carrigg said after the game. “That’s a good highlight, for sure. Making a catch in the ivy is pretty cool.”

-Field Level Media

The Tampa Bay Rays are glad to be back in their domed home, where they win much more often than not, and it helps to get run-producer Jonathan Aranda swinging well again.

A night after Aranda poked an opposite-field, three-run homer off the left-field foul pole early in a 5-2 victory over Washington, the Rays will face the Nationals again on Saturday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Trailing 2-0 in the third inning of Friday’s series opener, Aranda drove in three runs with one swing, moving him to 51 RBI, just eight from tying his career high set last season during an All-Star campaign.

“It was a key at-bat,” Aranda said through a translator of the go-ahead shot. “I was really focused in the moment. Just trying to stay mentally strong and help my teammates out in any possible ways.

“Happy to help get us back in the win column and happy to be back at home. The fans do a lot for us.”

Added manager Kevin Cash after the victory: “We haven’t had an (important) swing like that in a while.”

Winning pitcher Griffin Jax tossed five innings and echoed Aranda’s thoughts on the dome, saying, “This is our home. This is home field, and we have such an advantage playing here.”

The home-field advantage is real.

The American League East squad improved to a majors-best 25-9 at home, the only team still sporting single digits in losses and the first AL club to reach 25 victories in its park.

Reliever Ian Seymour (3-0, 4.93 ERA) will start Saturday for the third time for the Rays. He is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in one career start vs. Washington, a five-inning outing in a 7-4 win over them Aug. 31 in Washington.

On Friday, the Nationals got solo home runs from CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr., but one of the surprise teams in the National League managed only six hits.

“Not missing the pitch to hit,” Abrams said of the importance of pitch selection. “Don’t get too many of them, so don’t miss the ones that are in the middle.”

Entering this three-game series, Cash said it was important to be “mindful” of his team not letting the visitors get on base, create plenty of traffic and run wild.

In addition to just six hits, Washington’s batters did not work one walk off Tampa Bay pitching — stymieing the Nationals’ speed and prolific offense for the most part.

Nasim Nunez did record his NL-best 27th steal, but little basepath traffic took place under the dome.

Washington manager Blake Butera gave credit to the home side’s bullpen, which did not allow a run in four innings, including a perfect ninth from closer Bryan Baker for his 19th save.

“Just really good arms and different angles and different stuff,” said Butera. “They threw a bunch at us … When they have a lead late in the game, it’s really hard to come back from that. We had a chance there, I thought, in the eighth, just couldn’t come through.”

Scratched on Friday morning after getting food poisoning, Cade Cavalli (4-4, 3.98 ERA) will make his first-ever outing against the Rays on Saturday.

The right-hander has won three of his past five decisions dating to May 16.

–Field Level Media

The task for the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night already was a tall one.

A walk-off loss Friday might have made it even tougher.

The Orioles will look to bounce back from a discouraging defeat Saturday night, when they visit the Los Angeles Dodgers in the middle contest of a three-game series.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers (3-7, 5.86 ERA) is slated to start for the Orioles against Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-4, 2.52), who flirted with a perfect game and a no-hitter in his most recent start.

The Orioles overcame an early three-run deficit before squandering a two-run lead in the ninth inning Friday. Dalton Rushing delivered the game-tying RBI single with two outs and Ryan Ward raced home on a throwing error by right fielder Tyler O’Neill as the hosts escaped with a 6-5 victory.

Orioles closer Ryan Helsley, making his second appearance since a seven-week stint on the injured list due to right elbow inflammation, gave up a one-out homer to Mookie Betts and issued walks to Max Muncy and Ward before Rushing singled to right on a 1-2 pitch.

Alex Call, pinch-running for Muncy, slid home with the tying run as O’Neill’s throw glanced off the glove of catcher Samuel Basillo and skipped toward the Dodgers dugout and well beyond Helsley, who was backing up the play. Ward never broke stride as he rounded third and scored the winning run standing up.

“Definitely a gut punch — that’s why it’s 27 outs and no time limit in this game,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “This one hurts, but our group will get over it quickly and get ready to go out (Saturday).”

The Orioles don’t have much of a choice but to get ready quickly for Yamamoto, who almost made three bits of big league history against the Chicago White Sox on June 13.

Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters he faced to run his streak of consecutive batters retired to 45, one shy of the big league record set by the San Francisco Giants’ Yusmeiro Petit in 2014. His bid for perfection and Petit’s record ended when Betts, playing shortstop, misplayed Chase Meidroth’s grounder.

Yamamoto’s no-hit pursuit was broken up when Tristan Peters led off the ninth with a homer. Yamamoto, who finished with seven strikeouts, recorded one more out before departing for Alex Vesia, who got the last two outs in the 7-1 win.

The victory Friday continued a mini-surge for the Dodgers, who have won five of their past six games after posting a 6-5 record in their first 11 games of the month.

Prior to hosting the Orioles, Los Angeles swept a three-game set from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers sandwiched comeback wins around a 1-0 victory Tuesday.

“We’re just stacking wins,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The most important thing is to win baseball games, but we haven’t really played well. I say that in a positive way that we’re still winning a lot of baseball games.”

The Dodgers won Friday without two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, whose wife, Mamiko, gave birth to the couple’s second child. Ohtani posted the news of the baby’s birth to his Instagram account early Saturday morning, thanking his child “for being born safely.” He included a photo of the newborn’s feet sticking out from a blue blanket.

Roberts said Ohtani was not placed on the paternity list and is expected to play this weekend, perhaps even Saturday.

Yamamoto also almost threw a no-hitter in his lone start against the Orioles last Sept. 6, but Jackson Holliday recorded Baltimore’s first hit with a two-out, ninth-inning homer to begin a stunning comeback in a 4-3 victory after being down 3-0. Yamamoto didn’t factor into the decision after walking two and striking out 10.

Rogers took the loss in his most recent start last Monday, when he allowed two runs over six innings as the Orioles fell to the San Diego Padres, 5-2.

Rogers is 0-0 with a 3.48 ERA in two career starts against the Dodgers.

–Field Level Media