Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes recorded two career firsts on Tuesday night in a 2-1 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals (box score): 1) he pitched into the ninth inning; and 2) he suffered an official loss. Skenes had previously compiled a 6-0 record while not tallying more than seven innings over the course of his first 11 big-league starts.
Skenes, 22, isn’t the next big thing in Major League Baseball so much as he’s the current big thing. In his first 11 starts, he had accumulated a 1.90 ERA (215 ERA+) and a 6.85 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He recently became the first player in MLB history to make the All-Star Game the summer after being drafted. That piece of trivia actually understates what Skenes accomplished since he started the game for the National League.
On Tuesday, Skenes delivered 8 1/3 innings of two-run ball for the Pirates. He surrendered four hits and no walks (one of those hits was a Nolan Arenado home run), all the while striking out eight batters on 104 pitches. It represented the deepest start of his career — remember, he’s twice been removed from games without allowing a hit — but notably not his highest pitch count. That honor still belongs to his start against the New York Mets on July 5. Skenes threw 107 pitches that day as part of a quality start victory.
The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning on Arenado’s home run. The Pirates tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, but fell back behind on a timely Alec Burleson single in the top of the ninth.
Of course, this is 2024 and everyone understands that pitcher wins and losses are a flawed evaluative measure — they’re a function of run support and a variety of other factors that make them useless when judging a pitcher’s contributions in a single game. Additionally, this isn’t the first time the Pirates have lost on Skenes’ day — they’re now 8-4. We note that Skenes took the loss only because, well, he hadn’t for two months. That’s something.
Earlier Tuesday, CBS Sports wrote about how Skenes’ ascent to superstardom could change the Pirates’ deadline plans. Remember, MLB’s trade deadline will pass on July 30.
