The Paul Skenes show continues.
The rookie Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher continued to shine in his fourth MLB start on Wednesday. Skenes struckout nine Detroit Tigers batters with little to offer in a 10-2 Pirates victory.
Skenes repeatedly confused batters with a fastball that reached 100 mph and a splitter that topped out at 90 mph. He started the game with a 1-2-3 first inning. The Tigers tagged him for a run in the second inning with a walk, a single and a sacrifice fly.
Skenes then pitched a scoreless third before striking out the fourth, leaning on his splitter for the knockout blows.
Mark Canha swung and missed on a 90 mph splitter in the zone for strike three. Colt Keith then swung and missed a 90 mph splitter off the plate. Akil Baddoo could not overtake a 155 km/h third stroke splitter that dropped to the bottom of the zone.
Then the fifth inning was all about efficiency. Skenes needed just nine pitches to retire the side with two lineouts and a strikeout by Spencer Torkelson.
In the sixth, Skenes finally made a mistake. Matt Vierling made him pay. Skenes left an 80-mph slider hanging in the middle of the strike zone, and Vierling launched it over the left field wall for a solo home run to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-2 with two outs.
Skenes then induced Canha to ground out, and his day was done.
Ultimately, Skenes pitched six innings, allowing three hits, one walk, one home run and two earned runs with nine strikeouts. The 22-year-old increased his career strikeout total to 30 in 22 innings in four games.
He got plenty of support on Wednesday, including another home run from Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen launched a three-run home run in the third inning to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead.
Pittsburgh never trailed again. McCutchen has now homered in each of Skenes’ four starts to bring his total for the season to eight.
Despite Skenes’ excellence, the Pirates have struggled to keep up in the NL Central. With the win, Pittsburgh improved to 26-30, good for fourth in the division, six games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers. The Tigers fell to 27-28, 10 games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
