Saturday afternoon…and, well, night was a rough one for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
What started as a beautiful day saw PNC Park packed to the brim, with 37,773 fans flocking to the ballpark to get their hands on a Paul Skenes bobblehead. And it just so happened that the pitcher taking the mound for the hometown team was the bobblehead’s likeness himself, Paul Skenes.
Skenes pitched a scoreless four frames with five strikeouts against the Tampa Bay Rays, but his outing was cut short at just 64 pitches. Before he could get back out there for the fifth, a downpour snuck up on the festivities, prompting a rain delay just minutes after the first drops started to fall.
By the time the game was back on, Skenes had sat for too long, and the Pirates were forced to embark on the rest of that day’s journey with their bullpen. The first man up was Cam Sanders, the recent recall from Triple-A Indianapolis who had a cup of coffee with the Pirates last season.
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Fifth Avenue Sports 