If you’ve recently attended a Major League Baseball game, you might have noticed one of the umpires examining the hands and hats of the teams’ pitchers for foreign substances or other irregularities as they enter and leave the mound area. They might need to start checking one pitcher for something else–a flamethrower.
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Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes made his second-ever starting appearance in the major leagues against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Friday. He put on quite a show.
As I’ve written previously in these pages, Skenes is just the latest in a string of recent phenoms in the MLB: young players with a belly full of fire and freak-level talent, including Los Angeles’ Dodgers double-threat Shohei Otani and the Cincinnati Reds’ multi-base marauder, Elly De La Cruz.
Read More:
Phenom: Reds’ Elly De La Cruz Hits for the Cycle in Just 15th Career Start
While his first start on May 11 in Pittsburgh had fireworks of its own, Skenes and his flame-throwing right arm ran into some issues:
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes’ stuff was as electric as advertised.
A fastball that reached at least 100 mph 17 times. A slider that left major leaguers shaking their heads. An invention called a “splinker” that is a hybrid of a splitter and a sinker and dips and dives unlike any pitch anywhere in baseball.
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So while there were some positive takeaways from his major league debut on Saturday — seven strikeouts over four-plus innings and much, much later a 10-9 victory over the Chicago Cubs — the top overall pick in last year’s draft understands there is more work to be done.
He needed 84 pitches to get 12 outs, issued a couple of walks, hit a batter and was charged with three runs.
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He also has a fairly unique background for a pro ball player; Skenes attended the United States Air Force Academy before transferring to Louisiana State:
It’s been a dizzying rise for Skenes from somewhat anonymous Air Force Academy cadet to College World Series MVP at LSU to a record $9.2 million signing bonus to possible franchise cornerstone.
But on Friday, he wowed even Cubs fans inside the not-so-Friendly Confines, striking out the first seven batters he faced in the outing:
Paul Skenes dominated the Chicago Cubs to such an extent that the Wrigley Field crowd cheered Friday afternoon when Pete Crow-Armstrong grounded out in the third inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The hometown crowd celebrated that swing because it broke Skenes’ streak of seven consecutive strikeouts to begin his second major-league game, a much-anticipated affair given the hype surrounding the game’s top pitching prospect.
That’s only been accomplished twice before by a rookie pitcher:
Skenes became the third rookie with seven strikeouts to start a game, joining Jacob deGrom on Sept. 15, 2014, and Jim Deshaies on Sept. 23, 1986. The seven consecutive strikeouts matched the franchise record for any point in a game, joining Francisco Liriano on June 1, 2013, against Cincinnati and Erik Bedard on May 3, 2012, versus St. Louis.
All told, Skenes threw six innings of no-hit baseball, allowing just one man to reach base on a walk:
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Skenes turned in a dominant performance during his second major league start on Friday, striking out 11 while pitching six no-hit innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 9-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. He allowed just one baserunner on a full-count walk by Michael Busch in the fifth.
The Pirates’ official X account noted that the 11 strikeouts notched a team record:
Oh, and he’s just 21 years old (until his birthday on May 29th). Hopefully, if he stays healthy, we’ll have many more years of watching Skenes wow baseball fans, whichever team they root for.
Related at RedState: The Story of the Hero Beekeeper From the Dodgers-Diamondbacks Game Just Keeps Getting Better