Paul Skenes put on a black dress shoe and then another. He slowly unfolded his 6-foot frame from the chair in front of his locker, put on a blue blazer, ran his hands through his black hair and turned to face the cameras.
It’s not just the 21-year-old’s stuff that’s different.
While most of his Pittsburgh Pirates teammates quietly left the clubhouse Thursday in T-shirts, shorts and sneakers after a 7-6 loss to San Francisco, Skenes looked like he was heading to a business dinner.
Fitting for a player who takes his dream job very, very seriously.
There is a maturity to Skenes, both on and off the mound, that belies his age. Both were on full display in his third big-league start, when Skenes didn’t so much dominate the Giants as he outplayed them for six innings.
On a day when his breaking ball control was questionable at best, throwing “only” four pitches that reached 100 miles per hour and striking out only three of the 23 batters he faced, Skenes found a way to make it work anyway.
“You just have to make pitches because they’re going to put the ball in play,” Skenes said. “I just have to trust my stuff and trust that it will create weak contact. Overall pretty good.”
Six days after Skenes threw six electrifying no-hit innings against the Cubs, the Giants managed to get him six hits and a walk. They also hit a pair of double plays and scored only one run, despite getting at least one baserunner in every inning except the second.
And maybe that’s just as important in Skenes’ development as what he showed against the Cubs. He won’t give his best every time. No pitcher does that. Still, he gave the Pirates a chance to win anyway, with a performance that could accelerate a learning curve that is already well ahead of schedule.
“There’s going to be so many growth moments for him, but the last time he starts, he doesn’t allow a single hit,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “Then he has to navigate traffic this start, he has to navigate some experienced hitters. It will definitely make him better.”
San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman — like Skenes, a graduate of El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California — doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that the Giants only made their comeback after Skenes left.
“I think the future is bright for that guy,” Chapman said. “And it’s exciting to see someone from the same high school go out and have success as quickly as he did.”
The way Skenes carries himself and the way he goes about his business makes it seem like he’s been around for a while. He doesn’t have that.
Three weeks ago he was in Triple-A. A year ago, he helped the Tigers win a national title at LSU. Two springs ago, he was a catcher/reliever at the Air Force Academy, who faced the difficult but necessary decision to transfer if he wanted to give himself a chance in the major leagues sooner or later.
Now he’s here. And in some ways he’s already a sensation. His starts are already known simply as ‘Skenes Day’. Livvy Dunne, Skenes’ girlfriend and a gymnast/influencer, was among the 23,000 — some wearing his No. 30 jersey, others with their own take on his signature mustache — who turned out to watch Skenes during a weekday matinee , more than 8,000 more than the largest crowd for an outing at PNC Park this season.
All this for a player who doesn’t turn 22 until next week and has now thrown a total of 22 1/3 innings in the majors. Skenes has tried to ride the wave of fame closely. Still, there will be days when things don’t go his way. Given the way Skenes battled his broken stuff, Thursday could have been one of those games. It wasn’t.
“I think everyone obviously expects him to just go out there and dominate everyone … and there’s a good chance he does that,” Pirates catcher Joey Bart said. “But it’s really hard for a kid who was pitching in the SEC tournament this time last year. So I really like the way he composed himself. I’m impressed.”
Even if it means Bart, now six years into his professional career, has to pick up a few things on the fly, including how to handle Skenes’ “splinker,” a hybrid of a splitter and a sinker that dives through the strike zone in center until the late 1990s.
“I’ve never heard of it, never seen it, I didn’t even know what it was when he threw it at me, to be honest,” Bart said. “But it is good.”
And Skenes is good. How good? Time will tell. Still, he and fellow rookie pitcher Jared Jones have given Pittsburgh something that has been in short supply for most of the past three decades: hope.
Jones, all of 22, kept the Giants in check on Wednesday. Skenes did the same less than 24 hours later. Pittsburgh’s bullpen found a way to let both game wins slip away. It’s one of the reasons why Shelton’s frustration was so palpable afterward.
The arrival of two of the best young pitchers in the sport has raised the stakes and buzz around a franchise that has largely been an afterthought of late.
The window to win in Pittsburgh is creaking open. Skenes proves he’s more than capable of helping with the lifting.
