Civale rises to challenge vs. Skenes as Rays wrap winning trip

PITTSBURGH -- A few weeks ago, Aaron Civale was talking to Brandon Lowe about some advice the second baseman’s coach gave him in college at the University of Maryland. In baseball, a team’s starting pitcher doesn’t technically compete directly against his mound opponent, but there’s still some motivation to be found in that matchup.

“Something his coach told him when he was in college was, 'I know you're not playing against their second baseman, but make it a small personal challenge to challenge that other guy,’” Civale said Saturday. “Anytime you face one of the best pitchers in the game, that's a cool little challenge, for sure.”

That was the case on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, with Civale facing Pirates phenom Paul Skenes before an energetic crowd of 29,026. Skenes lived up to the hype, but Civale was up to the challenge.

The right-hander allowed just one run over five efficient innings, keeping the game close and allowing Tampa Bay’s lineup to capitalize as soon as Skenes left the game. The Rays rallied for two runs in the eighth off reliever Colin Holderman, supporting their excellent pitching in a 3-1 win.

Manager Kevin Cash called it a “big win,” as the victory secured a winning road trip for the Rays. They went 5-4 during their 10-day journey through Atlanta, Minnesota and Pittsburgh, winning five of their last seven after dropping the first two games in Atlanta.

“Quite the pitchers’ duel. Our pitchers did a tremendous job, highlighted by Civale,” Cash said. “Happy for him. Then the bullpen came in, did their thing, just bought us some time.”

Civale held the Pirates to three hits and a walk while striking out three, breezing through five innings on 61 pitches. The only damage he allowed came in the fourth inning, when Bryan Reynolds launched a leadoff homer to right field. He followed a balanced game plan, getting ahead in counts and throwing an even mix of sinkers, cutters, curveballs and sweepers.

“I felt good. Just felt like I was attacking hitters pretty well,” Civale said. “[Catcher Alex Jackson] and I were working well together and just trying to, if a guy got on, get out of the situation as quickly as we could.”

It was Tampa Bay’s first win behind Civale since May 3, snapping an eight-start skid, but the Rays cut off his start after five innings in part because of the way Zach Eflin gave their bullpen a break in Saturday’s loss.

The bullpen looked rested and ready, too. Relievers Garrett Cleavinger, Kevin Kelly, Jason Adam and Pete Fairbanks (who collected his 11th save) didn’t allow a hit the rest of the way.

“Our job is to avoid the other team scoring at all costs and give our team the best chance to win,” Adam said. “If they score one, we’re going to win most of the time.”

The Rays needed their pitching to be on point, because Skenes certainly came as advertised.

The flame-throwing 22-year-old entered the day 4-0 with a 2.29 ERA and 53 strikeouts in his first seven Major League starts. Drafted No. 1 overall less than a year ago, Skenes has already earned a reputation for being one of the most talented pitchers in the Majors.

Yandy Díaz punched his first pitch of the game -- a 99.5 mph fastball -- off the right-field pole for a leadoff homer. Skenes punctuated his outing with a 101.5 mph heater to strike out Jackson.

The result was Díaz’s third leadoff home run of the season and his second first-pitch leadoff homer of the year, as he also accomplished that feat against Nestor Cortes on May 11. The last time the Rays went deep on the first pitch of the game, period? That was also Díaz -- off Boston’s Michael Wacha on Aug. 26, 2022.

“There’s no secret that he’s a good pitcher, and you know that you don’t want to battle too many pitches or see too many pitches,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “That’s why I went for the first pitch.”

But Skenes eventually found his rhythm and retired the final 11 hitters he faced in order to cap the longest outing of his young career. When his day was done after seven innings, Tampa Bay capitalized on his absence.

Díaz and Josh Lowe hit back-to-back singles to greet Holderman in the eighth. Pinch-runner José Caballero scored on a sacrifice fly by Randy Arozarena, and Lowe scored on a single to left by Richie Palacios.

“You can see after he left, the guys started to hit a little bit better and we took advantage of that and we were able to get some more runs,” said Díaz, who went 3-for-4 to extend his career-best hitting (16 games) and on-base (25 games) streaks.