Every start Paul Skenes makes for the Pittsburgh Pirates has become a must-see event, so it was going to take something special to overshadow his eight-strikeout performance before a sellout crowd at PNC Park.
Bryan Reynolds and Rowdy Tellez had just the answer, igniting the biggest blowout of the season with powerful swings that sent the 37,037 fans in attendance into a frenzy that carried throughout the night.
Both Reynolds and Tellez homered twice and hit grand slams to combine for 11 RBIs and propel the Pirates to a 14-2 win over the New York Mets on Friday night before their first sellout crowd since the home opener against Baltimore on April 5.
The Pirates had their most complete performance of the season, tying a season best with 16 hits and smacking both seven homers and two grand slams for only the fifth time in franchise history.
So many home runs, in fact, that the Pirates posted a message on the scoreboard to inform fans that they ran out of celebratory fireworks.
In addition to Reynolds and Tellez, Jack Suwinski, Yasmani Grandal and Michael A. Taylor homered.
“It’s a great offensive game for us. I think we can build off it and keep it rolling, just keep going strong for the rest of the year,” Reynolds said, noting the run support for Skenes. “I don’t think that’s a guy that needs 14. I guess we’re trying to make up for some lost time right there.”
Reynolds and Skenes made strong cases to be added to the National League roster for the All-Star Game.
Reynolds, who had a 25-game hitting streak, went 4 for 5 and matched his career best with six RBIs while homering for the second consecutive game to boost his season total to 16, with an .831 OPS and 54 RBIs.
The Pirates capitalized on another standout start from Skenes (5-0), as the 6-foot-6, 260-pound rookie right-hander allowed two runs on four hits and two walks while throwing 107 pitches in seven innings. He recorded seven or more strikeouts in his seventh consecutive game and ninth time in 10 starts, setting an MLB record for such outings to begin a player’s career.
Defensively, the Pirates turned three double plays to end an inning against a Mets team that had won 20 of their previous 30 games.
“They might be the hottest team in baseball, so going into the game we know we’ve got to be pretty perfect,” Skenes said. “Being able to get that run support early in the game to keep it close and then later in the game definitely makes it easier to pitch for all of us.”
Skenes cruised through the first inning on 10 pitches, finishing with a fist pump after getting Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez looking at a called third strike on a 99.5-mph four-seam fastball.
Pete Alonso started the second with a single to left, and D.J. Stewart drew a full-count walk before Skenes got Francisco Alvarez swinging at a splinker for a strikeout, then induced Jose Iglesias to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to strand both runners.
Jeff McNeil hit an 0-2 fastball 390 feet to right field for a leadoff home run in the third to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, marking the third consecutive start that Skenes has surrendered a solo homer.
With one out, Francisco Lindor reached on a throwing error by second baseman Nick Gonzales and Skenes walked Brandon Nimmo on four pitches. But Skenes got Martinez to line out to Tellez, who threw to second to turn a double play to end the rally.
The Mets tacked on another run in the fourth for a 2-0 lead. Alonso finished a 10-pitch at-bat with a double past right fielder Joshua Palacios, tagged to third on Stewart’s fly out to right and scored when Iglesias grounded into a forceout at second but beat the double-play throw.
The Pirates responded with back-to-back home runs by Tellez and Suwinski in the fourth. Tellez drilled Luis Severino’s 1-1 changeup 426 feet to right-center for a leadoff homer, his sixth of the season and fourth in the eight games. Suwinski smacked Severino’s first-pitch fastball inside 394 feet to right-center for his eighth home run to tie the game.
That seemed to spark Skenes, who struck out Harrison Bader on a full-count slider, got Lindor to fly out to center and Nimmo swinging at a 99.1-mph fastball for a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
The Pirates had a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs in the bottom of the fifth after Taylor (4 for 4) led off with single and Palacios drew a four-pitch walk and both runners advanced on Severino’s errant pickoff throw to second. Severino picked off Taylor at third to save a run, only for Reynolds to send a 2-2 fastball above the zone 399 feet to right for his 15th homer and a 4-2 Pirates lead.
“That was a big one because it was a two-strike count,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “You have second and third, nobody out, little bit of a deflate there. For (Reynolds) to come right back there and put us on the board, I think that was really important. I think it switched the whole momentum of the game.”
After getting Martinez and Alonso looking at called third strikes in an 11-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth, Shelton sent Skenes out for the seventh despite being at 93 pitches.
“With the way he was going,” Shelton said, “there was no hesitation at all.”
Skenes got successive groundouts to third, though the Mets challenged that Iglesias beat Ke’Bryan Hayes’ throw to first and the call was overturned. When McNeil lined out to right, the crowd stood and clapped for Skenes as he got called strikes on Bader with a fastball and curveball. Bader went down chasing a slider away to end the frame. Skenes spun and punched his glove in celebration and got a standing ovation as he walked off the field.
The buzz inside the ballpark only escalated when Grandal led off the bottom of the seventh with a double and Taylor followed with his third single. Palacios drew another four-pitch walk to load the bases for Reynolds, who sent a 2-2 fastball above the zone 413 feet to center. Reynolds homered in back-to-back games for the third time this season — going deep from both sides of the plate — and is now one homer shy of tying Bobby Bonilla’s franchise record of 114 home runs by a switch hitter. Reynolds’ third career grand slam — and second of the season — provided a seismic momentum shift.
“If anything did it, it was B-Rey’s two-run homer that put us up by two, and we kind of just went that way and Paul shut the door,” Tellez said. “I think if you want to pinpoint something, in my opinion, it’s that.”
Grandal and Taylor, who both entered the game hitting below the Mendoza Line, hit back-to-back homers in the six-run eighth. Palacios and Reynolds followed with singles and Oneil Cruz walked to load the bases for Tellez, who crushed a 2-1 slider 403 feet into the bullpen for another slam and a 12-run lead.
The Pirates were thrilled to give the sellout crowd what it wanted, as fans stayed in their seats and continued to cheer until the final out.
“They were into the game the whole game,” Shelton said. “You could feel the energy in the ballpark tonight. They were into it. Even late in the game when it was 14-2 they were still up on their feet. You get a situation like that sometimes where crowds will leave, and they were all here and cheering. I thought that was really cool.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.