Pirates

Pirates Preview: Skenes, Gil Square Off in Possible ROTY Battle

Published

2 months ago

September 28, 2024

Pittsburgh Pirates, Paul Skenes, Sidney Crosby

The Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off their final series of 2024 with a 4-2 win over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

Bryan Reynolds hit a pair of home runs and went back-to-back with Nick Gonzales in the sixth inning to carry the Bucs over New York.

Paul Skenes’ historic rookie season for the Pirates (75-85) will conclude against potential American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (93-67) and the New York Yankees on Saturday afternoon.

First pitch is set for 1:05 ET and the game will be aired on SportsNet Pittsburgh.

Weather

Slight chance of rain during the game with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees. Winds ENE at 10 mph.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Will Send Out RHP Paul Skenes (11-3, 1.99 ERA)

Skenes continued a dominant month of September with five-shutout innings and nine strikeouts against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.

In four starts this month, Skenes is 3-1 with an eye-popping 0.82 ERA. In 22 innings, he’s allowed two runs on 16 hits with six walks, 31 strikeouts and an opponent OPS of just .477.

Skenes leads all major-league starters with a 1.99 ERA since he made his MLB debut on May 11. He enters play trailing Cubs’ starter Shota Imanaga (174) by seven strikeouts for the most among rookie pitchers.

This will be his first matchup against the Yankees.

The New York Yankees Will Send Out RHP Luis Gil (15-6, 3.27 ERA)

Gil was roughed up a bit in his last start against the A’s. The right-hander allowed four runs on five hits in 5.1 innings but still got the win.

The 26-year-old leads all rookie starters with a .186 batting average against, leads American League rookies with his 3.27 ERA and is fourth among all rookies with 166 strikeouts.

Gil uses his four-seam fastball about half the time and mixes up sliders and a changeup evenly for his secondary offerings.

He’s never faced the Pirates before.

Yankees Hitters vs. Skenes

Though he hasn’t faced any Yankee in the regular season, Skenes walked Juan Soto in the All-Star Game and got Aaron Judge to bounce out.

Pirates Hitters vs. Gil

Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 0 for 3, one RBI, one walk, two strikeouts
Yasmani Grandal: 0 for 1, one walk

Tidbits

This was the seventh time in his career that Bryan Reynolds homered twice in the same game. The last time he did it was earlier this season on July 5 against the New York Mets.
Nick Gonzales went 60 games without a home run prior to Friday night. His last home run came on June 15 against the Rockies on Colorado.
Paul Skenes’ 11 wins are the most by a Pirates’ rookie since Josh Fogg had 12 wins in 2002.