{"id":657280,"date":"2026-04-01T19:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657280\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:43:28","slug":"cruz-homers-skenes-returns-to-form-as-pirates-take-series-with-8-3-victory-over-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657280\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz homers, Skenes returns to form as Pirates take series with 8-3 victory over Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI (AP) \u2014 Oneil Cruz<\/a> had a three-run homer, his third in two games, Paul Skenes<\/a> allowed one run in five innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> defeated the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> 8-3 on Wednesday to take the three-game series.<\/p>\n

Bryan Reynolds<\/a> had a two-run shot, and Nick Gonzales<\/a> added a two-run double during the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Eugenio Suarez<\/a> had a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the sixth inning for the Reds.<\/p>\n

Cruz went 5 for 13 with three home runs and six RBIs in the series. The power-hitting outfielder has gone deep nine times in the 19 games he has played in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

Reds starter Andrew Abbott<\/a> (0-1) retired the first two Pirates hitters before Bryan Reynolds singled to right and Marcell Ozuna<\/a> drew a walk. Cruz then connected on a 2-1 curveball that was over the bottom part of the plate and drove it 407 feet over the wall in right field.<\/p>\n

Skenes (1-1) returned to his All-Star form after giving up five runs in two-thirds of an inning last Thursday in the season opener against the New York Mets<\/a>. The reigning NL Cy Young winner allowed three hits, walked two and struck out five.<\/p>\n

The right-hander gave up two walks in the first three innings before Elly De La Cruz<\/a> led off the fourth with a base hit to right. Two batters later, Nathaniel Lowe<\/a> had an RBI double to right-center, snapping the Reds\u2019 31-inning scoreless streak against Skenes.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh took a 4-1 lead in the sixth when Cruz scored after Spencer Horwitz<\/a> was walked by Connor Phillips<\/a> with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez got the Reds within a run in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer to left, his second of the season.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Pirates: Have their home opener on Friday against Baltimore. RHP Mitch Keller (0-0, 0.00 ERA) gets the start.<\/p>\n

Reds: Open a seven-game road trip on Friday against Texas. RHP Brady Singer (0-0, 6.75 ERA) makes his second start.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI (AP) \u2014 Oneil Cruz had a three-run homer, his third in two games, Paul Skenes allowed one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[2001,5,5343,535,50,4259,25546,1177,92,76469,19,78,4,495,10608,1330,877,64,536,950],"class_list":{"0":"post-657280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-andrew-abbott","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bryan-reynolds","11":"tag-cincinnati","12":"tag-cincinnati-reds","13":"tag-cincinnatireds","14":"tag-connor-phillips","15":"tag-elly-de-la-cruz","16":"tag-eugenio-suarez","17":"tag-event_recap","18":"tag-major-league-baseball","19":"tag-marcell-ozuna","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-nathaniel-lowe","22":"tag-nick-gonzales","23":"tag-oneil-cruz","24":"tag-paul-skenes","25":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","26":"tag-reds","27":"tag-spencer-horwitz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116331164711237663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}