Tuesday’s Pittsburgh Pirates-Colorado Rockies game sparked another debate over baseball’s unwritten rules.
Pirates ace Paul Skenes got the start against the Rockies at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. and was absolutely magical. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and ended up going eight shutout innings and striking out 10 batters as Pittsburgh beat Colorado by a final score of 3-1.
Skenes was on-point from the very first pitch he threw and even managed to strike out six Rockies batters in a row to start the game. But the seventh batter of the night, Colorado infielder Willi Castro, pulled a controversial move on Skenes.
During the first pitch of the at-bat in the third inning, Castro laid down a bunt to snap Skenes’ strikeout streak. While Skenes easily threw out Castro at first base, the Pirates crowd definitely did not like it and loudly booed Castro for the stunt. Here is the video.
Paul Skenes struck out the first 6 Rockies to start the game
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 12, 2026
Willi Castro ended the streak bunting on the 1st pitch pic.twitter.com/mROIygeXwm
On the one hand, Castro gave away an out there pretty quickly and was not quite bunting to break up a no-hitter (though Skenes did technically have a no-hitter at the time). But on the other hand, many fans saw Castro’s first-pitch bunt as a pretty weak move that may or may not have violated an unwritten rule.
Skenes did not look too upset about the play and even appeared to say “nice one” while smiling. But considering that the reigning NL Cy Young winner Skenes had a past no-hitter attempt that was also shrouded in controversy, fans were left feeling a little bit sore about Castro’s stunt there.
