{"id":678881,"date":"2026-04-19T05:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678881\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:54:28","slug":"rain-delay-ruins-paul-skenes-gem-costs-pirates-dearly-vs-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678881\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain Delay Ruins Paul Skenes&#8217; Gem, Costs Pirates Dearly Vs. Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first half of their game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> were cruising. Paul Skenes was off to a phenomenal start and he was getting <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\/news\/paul-skenes-finally-getting-benefit-pirates-first-time\/4136d61296690920d63197ac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">plenty of run support<\/a> on his <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/tickets\/news\/paul-skenes-bobblehead-night-tickets-prices-pirates-vs-rays\/6521cc2bbcee99f498f500db\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bobblehead night<\/a> thanks to a pair of two-run homers, the second of which drove Rays starter Drew Rasmussen from the game in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the Pirates and their 4-0 lead, the skies opened up on PNC Park after the fourth inning, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DOMISMONEY\/status\/2045603623564923209\" rel=\"nofollow\">resulting in a lengthy rain delay<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The delay flipped the script, completely derailing Pittsburgh&#8217;s momentum and giving Tampa Bay a chance to reset.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This Pirates game is entering a rain delay folks <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1jipvyMLl0\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/1jipvyMLl0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dominic Campbell (@DOMISMONEY) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DOMISMONEY\/status\/2045603623564923209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">April 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With Skenes out of the game after just\u00a064 pitches, the Rays immediately pounced on the Pirates&#8217; bullpen when play resumed in the fifth inning, erupting for five runs to take the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh rallied to tie the game in the eighth and force extra innings, only to lose 8-7 in the\u00a013th.<\/p>\n<p>It was an extremely frustrating loss for the Pirates, who missed numerous opportunities. They went just 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded a dozen baserunners. They also <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\/news\/was-pirates-bold-sacrifice-improved-offense-worth-it\/70956aec1052301107abbde1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">continued to struggle in the field<\/a>, committing a pair of errors.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh has lost its last four one-run games, alternating wins with losses over the last week. The Pirates will try to bounce back on Sunday afternoon and end their rollercoaster homestand on a high note.<\/p>\n<p>More MLB:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\/news\/pirates-manager-reveals-why-konnor-griffin-destined-greatnes\/edd105f8d09bb0d3080595ae\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates Manager Reveals Why Konnor Griffin Is Destined For Greatness<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first half of their game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Pirates were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-678881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116429826530243225","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678881","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=678881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}