Pirates
PNC Park Crowd Serenades Pirates Ace Paul Skenes With MVP Chants

PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes is a mere 12 starts into his Pittsburgh Pirates career and has already become one of the faces of baseball. Truthfully, it’s taken even less time than that.
Skenes became the fifth rookie to start on the mound for the National League in the All-Star Game. Facing the very best from the American League, Skenes delivered a scoreless inning, which came as no surprise considering everything he’s shown in his brief career.
He’s the first pitcher since at least 1901 with seven-plus strikeouts in at least 11 of his first 12-career starts. He’s twice carried a no-hitter deep into an outing before being pulled due to a high pitch count. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his starts and has held opponents to two runs or fewer 10 times.
On top of what he’s already done on the field, Skenes is the runaway favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year. Taking things a step further, he’s put himself near the top of the conversation in the N.L. Cy Young race.
But Pirates fans want more.
Skenes started for the Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals and pitched into the ninth inning for the first time in his career.
Aa Skenes went out to the mound after the bottom of the eighth inning, the 32,422 fans in attendance erupted into cheers. Shortly thereafter, chants of ‘MVP, MVP, MVP,’ broke out.
MVP chant.
Skenes brought 30,000 people here and they’re on their feet. pic.twitter.com/Y4BaPcFsDb— Dan Kingerski (@TheDanKingerski) July 24, 2024
“It was awesome, especially on a Tuesday night,” Skenes said on the crowd reaction. “Kind of just shows where we’re at as a team, where the city’s at. Just really, really cool. Obviously wish I could have finished it. It was a cool moment.”
Despite a 2-1 loss for the Pirates, Skenes delivered another superb outing. He allowed a pair of runs on four hits in 8.1 innings pitched. He didn’t issue a walk, struck out eight and threw 104 pitches.
Though Skenes took his first loss, he still has a 6-1 record with a dazzling 1.93 ERA. In 74.2 innings pitched, he’s struck out 97 batters against 13 walks and has held opponents to a miniscule .195 batting average.
It’s extremely rare to see a pitcher win an MVP award. But who knows that the future might hold for the prized rookie. Maybe those chants at PNC Park won’t be so far-fetched for Paul Skenes one day.