Paul Skenes Strikes Out Eight in Win | Blue Jays vs. Pirates Game Highlights (8/18/25)

Paul Skenes Strikes Out Eight in Win | Blue Jays vs. Pirates Game Highlights (8/18/25)

A beautiful evening and a beautiful ballpark is where the Blue Jays find themselves here tonight. PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. These two teams with inverse records. The Blue Jays 21 over, the Pirates 21 under against as tough a customer as there is in Paul Schemes. Just 23 years old, the right-hander was a first round first overall pick of the Pirates in 2023 out of LSU. Sound familiar? Yes, that’s where Kevin Gosman came from as well. faces George Springer and in the air to right and Reynolds and we’re underway. Fly out to right field. One, two from Skins. Bouncing ball to first on two hops. Horwitz plants and throws to Skeing for the out. Here’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hitting at 321 home runs and he’s been redot lately. Skins with 166 strikeouts, fourth most in the league. Oh, did he? Yes, he did. Thank you. I like it. Change up. Strikes out Vlad Jr. One, two, three for Skins. Toronto comes to bat here in the second. No score and Paul Skins working to Bo Bashette. Two two from Skins right there. Strength three call right down the middle and the fast ball. Couldn’t get the swing off. One out. One down. Here’s Daltton Vo right now. That heat’s playing though. Top of the zone with 99. Three straight strikeouts for skis. There is Ernie Clement. Clement on an 02 pitch hooks a breaking ball into left for a base hit. Even Paul Sches wouldn’t throw Ernie Clement a fast ball. So he’s at first with two down. And here is Lucas who as Hazel told you went three for three in aa game last year against Skins. And he hits a ground ball to the right side and that’s going to get through. did and hit it hard, but he finds a hole and including Triple A. Nathan Lucas is four for four against Paul Ste. The batter is Tyler Heinman. Alejandro Kirk catching all three games over the weekend against the Rangers. Swinging a miss struck him out 99 upstairs and Skins does get his man. Two left for Toronto. 25th start of the season for Gossman and he has been very good especially in his last nine starts pitching to a 2 and 1/2 RA. has only gone one start. He’s given up more than three earned runs. Nick Gonzalez hitting at 278 with five home runs. Off of Guerrero’s glove. That’ll be a base hit for Nick Gonzalez. A good effort by Vlatty diving to his right but just cannot come up with it. Off his glove and then into no man’s land. It’s an easy base hit. So Gonzalez is on for Andrew McCutchen. Andrew at 241 with 11 home runs. A soft liner. A broken bat soft liner. Can’t do that, Ernie. Yeah, can’t do that. Did he? Or that’s not Ernie. That’s Jimenez. That’s Jimenez. Here’s Jared Triolo. The shortstop for the Pirates. And he walks Triolo to put two on with one out for Canario. Alexander Canario. His last hit was July 7th. Line to center field. Base hit. Rebello going to wave home Gonzalez. And it is one- nothing Pirates. and he’ll drive in the first run of the game thanks to Alexander Canario. And it’s first and third, one out for the catcher, Henry Davis, hitting 170 this year. And he got a splitter down just below the knees. A swing and a miss for strike three. So two down and now another former Blue Jay, Isaiah Ker Faith, and he hits a ground ball to short. Bette comes to get it. The flip to Jimenez and that’ll end the inning as Gossman keeps the Pirates for just the one run. Well, Paul SK is tough no matter where he is pitching, but especially so here in his home ballpark in Pittsburgh. In his last five home starts entering this one, Joe, he has not given up a single run. It’s Andre Jimenez leading off the third and he’ll line one solidly into right for a base hit. Wonder if he was sitting on the curveball there. He got it and he hit it hard. Here’s Barger who grounded out to first, his first at bat. 3-2 again. Another fast ball. It’s ripped to right and this one is fair and off the wall. Springer on his way to third. He’s got to be held. But what a rocket off the bat of Addison Barger. And what an at bat that was. It’s second and third. Guerrero up and Bette next. And a great opportunity here for the Blue Jays in the third inning. Bounces this one. A great play at third, but it’ll get a run home. Isaiah Ker Palea takes a base hit away from Guerrero, but not an RBI. That’s the first run that Skins has allowed here since the beginning of June. Here’s Bo Bashette. 1-1 score. Shoots one to right field. It’s fair and it’ll bring in a run. Barger around to score on the RBI single by Boba. Bobette is so good at ripping those hands through and finding a way to inside out that ball into right field. Such a good swing. Spencer Horowitz will lead off the Pirates third. The other way and a fair ball down into the corner. He better hustle and he will. He’s there with a stand up double. He’s two for two. Here is Tommy Fam swinging a ball hit on the ground through the right side. Base hit. Horowitz with nobody out. Held to third. Hit too sharply by Tommy Fam. Not only does he advance the runner, but he’s going to get on as well. Reynolds. Pirates trail 2-1 here in the third. Little chopper. Oh, look at that play. Wow, what a play by Guerrero, but a safe call. The ball’s dropped. Heck of a play by Guerrero. Great play. Look at the throw right on the money. Jeez, tagged him with an empty nifty glove. Two two. Or scores. So, it’s tied at two. First and second. Still nobody out. And the one two is hit to short. Bette to Jimenez and on to first for the double play. Two down. His fan comes to third and it’s hit up the middle to his left. Bashette has to throw across his body and what a play by Guerrero at the other end. Bette and Guerrero both making great plays for a much needed third out of the inning. Pirates two, Blue Jays two. Paul Sches giving up the two runs on five hits. Andreas Jimenez swing and miss struck him out on a change up down and the way out of the zone and he chased schemes. That was his sixth ground ball to third. Connor Fleff up with it and on to first for the second out. Two outs and nobody on here in the fifth. And now Addison Barger he’ll take a walk on an inside fast ball missing. Now Ty France is going to bat for Vlad Jr. here. And I wonder if because he did the splits, was there any injury that was sustained there? Remember the Bette play, the big stretch by Guerrero. This is after the Horwitz base hit in the bottom of the first. Vlatty looking into the dugout, points to his left hamstring and says, “Malow.” Looks like Malo bad. Malo means bad in Spanish. And for Tai France, you’re facing Paul Sches, it can often be bad. Seven Ks. And now coming on is left-hander Evan Cisk. And so Davis Schneider will bat for Lucas. And it’s strike three called says Mark Riper. Schneider questioning if that was a swing or a called strike. And John Schneider will clean it up a little bit, but says that’s a terrible call. And Schneider just got tossed. Remember a couple of low strikes on McCutchen the last half inning. That one appeared to be even lower. And Davis Schneider, who’s got a very good eye and a very good feel for the strike zone, could not believe that was a cold strike. Well, there’s a breaking ball down at the bottom of the zone. It may not have looked great whether it caught the bottom of the zone or not. Davis didn’t like the call, but his manager definitely didn’t like the call. Well, we have heard from the Blue Jays who tell us that first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was removed from tonight’s ball game with left hamstring tightness. The Blue Jays official did not indicate at what point Guerrero felt some discomfort. Tied at two going to the bottom of the seventh with a lot of Blue Jay fans in attendance here at PNC Park. The batter Henry Davis line drive fair ball down the left field line. Henry Davis leads off with a double on a one-two pitch. Pirates first hit since the third. Easy double. Tie game in the seventh. Man at second. That’s Davis. They’re expecting a bunt from IKF. Corners are in. Wants it toward the pitcher. Sacrifice gets Davis to third. Well, Brendan Little pitched in yesterday’s ball game. A scoreless inning. 58 games now for Brendan. layover. Pagarro is the hitter. Oh, and it gets away and goes into the Pirates dugout. And that’s how the Pirates will take the lead. A wild pitch gives the Pirates a 3-2 lead in the seventh. Ball four. So Little comes in and walks the pinch hitter Pagarro and he’s on. And the Pirates will try to start something a new with Fam coming up. And he walks Fam. He’s come in. He’s on por to wild pitch. He’s walked to and now Fam has been saying something to Heinaman and now the bench is empty. It started on a pitch before that. Did you notice that the uh Springer telling Fam to calm down? I think Heinaman complained about that pitch not being called a strike. And I think Fam could emotion like that pitch is outside and maybe that Yeah, I think the bat flip from Fam probably irritated Heinman. And Heineman is saying, “I’m not talking to you.” Tyler Heinman clearly there. So I think Fam flipped the bat. Heman said something, but not to Fam. Pirates lead 3-2, looking for more. One out in the seventh. Reynolds batting. Swings through it. Down on strikes on that curveball. And Sir Anthony Dominguez is coming on looking for a very important third out here this got him. Great spot for that one. And he strikes out Gonzalez to end the inning. But the Pirates now lead three to two. Pirates three. Blue Jays two. Bottom of the eighth inning in Pittsburgh. Still Sir Anthony Dominguez. Now Triolo. Triola works the walk. Here’s Canario who had the RBI single in the second. Back to the mound and a throw into center field. And instead of one or maybe two in the inning being over, they don’t get anybody. If he lets it go, it goes right to Jimenez and he steps on the base and turns a double play. Well, they’ve committed two errors tonight. The runner goes from first. They’ll throw through and that goes into center field. Tyler Heinman with a throwing error and the Pirates get another run. On a third Blue Jay error in the game, Heinman throws through and sails it into center. It’s four to two. What an inning defensively for the Toronto Blue Jays. Just a disaster. And a high drive to deep left field in left center. Vario makes the catch, but obviously plenty deep enough for Penario to come in and the sack fly makes it five to2. The Pirates have made their way into the lead 52 as we go to the ninth inning and Dennis Santana on for the save. Bouncer right back to Santana in and out of his glove. He’s got it and on the first one pitch, one out and the Blue Jays are down to their final two outs now. Daltton Vo 0 for three. One more out to get for Dennis Santana. 5-2 Pirates in the ninth. Line to third. Raise the Jolly Rodger. Pirates beat the best team in the American League tonight. So the Blue Jays lose the game 5-2. And the bigger issue may be Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 at PNC Park on August 18, 2025. Paul Skenes struck out eight in six innings while Evan Sisk picked up his first MLB win. Bryan Reynolds, Alexander Canario and Henry Davis also drove in a run apiece in the win.

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