Paul Skenes Keeps Rolling, Ends Drought; Hard to Believe it Took This Long

PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes had a historic rookie season with the Pittsburgh Pirates last year. Somehow, a case could be made that he’s been even better this year.

Last year, Skenes took home National League Rookie of the Year honors after finishing the season 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings across 23 starts.

This year, Skenes leads Major League starters with a 1.91 ERA through his first 21 starts. He’s the only one with a sub-2.00 ERA. 

His performance this season has been nothing short of dominant, which makes it so hard to believe he only has a 5-8 record. 

While a pitcher’s win-loss record is no longer factored into individual performance like it once was, it’s symbolic of the Pirates’ struggles as a team this season.

Skenes notched his fifth win of the season after throwing six-shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers, who entered Monday night’s matchup at PNC Park with the best record in baseball.

“I thought it was pretty good,” Skenes said of his outing. “I think there’s still stuff to get better at, but I was happy with it.”

Skenes retired the first six batters he faced. He had to work harder in the third and fourth innings with multiple runners on base in each, but came out unscathed. He finished off his strong outing by retiring six of the final seven hitters he faced.

“Like we’ve talked about before, sometimes it’s so hard to square up his stuff because it’s so good,” said manager Don Kelly. “They were going up there swinging the bats. Paul did a great job getting through six.”

Skenes’ efforts resulted in his first win since tossing 6.2-shutout innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 28. He pitched to a 1.77 ERA over his next eight starts, but didn’t get a win in any of them.

The right-hander’s win was also only his second at PNC Park this season, the other of which came on April 14 against the Washington Nationals.

“Yeah we did a good job,” said Skenes. “At the end of the day it’s a shutout. I think I heard that it’s our 11th shutout of the year, something like that, so that’s pretty good. Braxton [Ashcraft] came in, Dennis [Santana], [David Bednar] came in and did a really good job. I was happy with it, but I know they were happy with it too.”

It’s hard to believe Skenes had gone nearly two months in between his fourth and fifth wins of the season, not to mention that he now only has two wins when pitching in his home stadium. 

Skenes doesn’t need much run support, but he hasn’t gotten any for most of the season. The offense did enough to ensure he got a win thanks to a three-run second inning on Friday. 

Spencer Horwitz put the Pirates ahead 1-0 with a two-out single, and two batters later, Bryan Reynolds brought home a pair with a bases-loaded single.

“I was really proud of our offense too, getting [Tigers starter Jack] Flaherty to work,” said Kelly. “I don’t know what he ended up, maybe 75, 78 pitches maybe, through three innings. Just continued to work the at-bats, battle and grind. That’s the approach we’ve been looking for.” 

Skenes’ start on Monday night continued a dominant stretch to start July. He hasn’t been scored upon in three of his four outings this month and has a 0.86 ERA since the calendar turned.

For his career, Skenes now owns a miniscule 1.94 ERA. 

“It’s impressive. It’s unbelievable, honestly,” Kelly explained. “When you look at the way he’s done it, we’ve talked about Paul Skenes the man and how he’s gone about it between starts. The work that goes into it, the detail. And then when he goes out there on the mound, you get to see that work pay off with the talent that he’s been blessed with. It’s really special.” 

But Skenes’ success on the mound hasn’t yet translated to team success. Since he made his debut last season on May 11, the Pirates are just 98-125.

While it will take more to turn around the Pirates’ fortunates than the staff ace pitching once every five games, maybe Monday night was at least the start of getting Skenes a few much-deserved wins.