Phoot provided by Matt Lynch
After dropping the first two games against the New York Mets in their opening series at Citi Field, the Pittsburgh Pirates earned their first win of the season in Sunday’s finale.
It was a much-needed win for the Pirates, who were inches away (twice) from potentially being swept to start the season.
A lot happened over the weekend in the Big Apple. Here are a few takeaways from the Pirates’ first three games of their 2026 slate.
Paul Skenes Panic Meter at 0.00001% (That Might Be High)
In what was by far the most stunning part of Opening Day, reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes failed to make it out of the first inning to begin his 2026 season. The right-hander only recorded two outs and was charged with five earned runs before manager Don Kelly came to get him.
Skenes was not as sharp as he usually is. He walked a pair of batters, hit another and struggled to put guys away. But honestly, had it not been for a pair of misplays by Oneil Cruz in center field, that start ends up looking different.
There’s no real reason to be concerned about Skenes given what he’s done in his brief yet historic career. With that being said, he will need to clean up some command issues which date back to spring training. In 6.1 innings in the Grapefruit League, Skenes walked seven batters. He only walked one in his two World Baseball Classic starts but also plunked two.
I’m willing to bet Paul Skenes looks like Paul Skenes in his next start, which will come on Wednesday afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark.
One Lowed Start
Newcomer Brandon Lowe made quite a strong first impression with his new club. The 31-year-old homered twice on Opening Day and again on Sunday. He became the third player to hit at least three home runs through their first three games with the Pirates, joining Shawon Dunston (1997) and Reggie Sanders (2003).
Lowe started all three games and had five hits (four of which went for extra bases) in 12 at-bats. In addition to his three home runs, he doubled, drew two walks, drove in four runs and scored three times.
He and Ryan O’Hearn, who was one of the heroes in Sunday’s win, both had strong first impressions after joining Pittsburgh this offseason.
Deflating Defense But Big Play When It Counted
It’s only been three games, but one thing is apparent. The Pirates need to play much better defense as the season goes on, something that was a concern entering the season.
Oneil Cruz cost Pittsburgh four runs in their season opener on back-to-back misplays — one bad read on a liner at him and again on a ball lost in the sun. Cruz’s defense, and the outfield defense as a whole, is a big concern moving forward.
The infield defense looked shaky at times on Sunday. In the second inning, third baseman Nick Gonzales missed a line drive right at him that ended up a single into left field. Later in the frame, the usually sure-handed Jared Triolo bobbled a ball at short and delivered a somewhat-wild throw to first base resulting in an E6.
The good news for the Pirates is that a perfect relay saved the day in the series finale on Sunday. With the Pirates ahead by two and two runners on for the Mets and nobody out in the 10th, Juan Soto split the left-center gap.
Cruz played the ball off the wall, threw to Triolo, who made a nice scoop and proceeded to fire home to prevent the tying run from scoring. And a nice redemption for both Cruz and Triolo.
RISP Issues Carry Over
Last season, the Pirates finished 30th in batting average with runners in scoring position (.232), 25th in on-base percentage (.318), 30th in slug (.350), 30th in OPS (.668), 25th in hits (296), tied for 29th in home runs (28) and 27th in RBI (424) among all 30 teams.
In their series against the Mets, they went 6 for 39 (.154) with RISP and left 32 runners on base. Like the defense, that will need to improve drastically as the season marches on but they came up clutch when they needed to in Sunday’s win.
And now as Bill Belichick once said, ‘on to Cincinnati.’
Mentioned in this article: Brandon Lowe Paul Skenes Pittsburgh Pirates
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