curveball

Freeman hit Skenes’ only mistake of the day — a hanging curveball over the center of the plate — into the right field corner for a double in the fourth inning.

In the fifth inning, after Andy Pages reached on a double for the second time in the game, Skenes struck out Shohei Ohtani on a full-count curveball that sent the Dodgers star into a twisting, off-balance backswing and had Pirates catcher Henry Davis pumping his fist toward the mound in celebration.

“I’ve never known anybody else who played Major League Baseball with keratoconus. I don’t know how he sees the spin on the curveball, or fastballs.”

The Dodgers, indeed, threw their fans a curveball.

A rare area of weakness for Yamamoto early this season had been his curveball.