By Paul Skenes' standards, Saturday was a rough afternoon.
Skenes gave up four runs on nine hits and one walk and recorded just two strikeouts over five-plus innings in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays, dropping consecutive starts for the first time this season. But as Skenes evaluated the outing afterward, he thought the reality of his performance had more nuance than the final line.
"I mean, there was good and bad," he said. "I wasn't super unhappy with some of the execution on some of the pitches, but could have executed a number of them better. I'll have to re-watch it again, but yeah, I think, probably similar to last week, probably not as bad as the line would suggest."
After George Springer's leadoff home run for Toronto, Skenes settled in and limited the Blue Jays to that one run over five innings. Don Kelly thought Skenes did a good job getting hitters to two strikes, but struggled to finish at-bats.
"Two strikes, they found a way to foul some balls off and put some balls in play," Kelly said. "It just didn’t seem like he was able to put them away as efficiently as he normally is. They have some really good hitters over there, too."
Skenes explained that struggle as an issue of execution.
"I feel like a lot of them weren't poorly executed, necessarily, but could have been better executed," he said. "Just got to throw a ball higher or a ball lower or ball more in or out, or something like that. That happens."
Asked if he has to change his process over a game like this one where the strikeouts are hard to come by, Skenes said, "probably a little bit.
"I think that in every start, there's a little bit of that cat and mouse game, hitters and pitchers," he said. "But end of the day, just got to get ahead of guys. Can't strike them out if you don't get to two strikes."
Of Toronto's 50 swings in this one, only seven were whiffs, unusually low numbers for Skenes. The difference between a would-be dominant outing and Saturday's result often came down to a few two-strike pitches that were close to where he wanted them, but not quite close enough to get a swing-and-miss and that third out.
THE ASYLUM
Skenes regrets two-strike execution vs. Jays
By Paul Skenes' standards, Saturday was a rough afternoon.
Skenes gave up four runs on nine hits and one walk and recorded just two strikeouts over five-plus innings in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays, dropping consecutive starts for the first time this season. But as Skenes evaluated the outing afterward, he thought the reality of his performance had more nuance than the final line.
"I mean, there was good and bad," he said. "I wasn't super unhappy with some of the execution on some of the pitches, but could have executed a number of them better. I'll have to re-watch it again, but yeah, I think, probably similar to last week, probably not as bad as the line would suggest."
After George Springer's leadoff home run for Toronto, Skenes settled in and limited the Blue Jays to that one run over five innings. Don Kelly thought Skenes did a good job getting hitters to two strikes, but struggled to finish at-bats.
"Two strikes, they found a way to foul some balls off and put some balls in play," Kelly said. "It just didn’t seem like he was able to put them away as efficiently as he normally is. They have some really good hitters over there, too."
Skenes explained that struggle as an issue of execution.
"I feel like a lot of them weren't poorly executed, necessarily, but could have been better executed," he said. "Just got to throw a ball higher or a ball lower or ball more in or out, or something like that. That happens."
Asked if he has to change his process over a game like this one where the strikeouts are hard to come by, Skenes said, "probably a little bit.
"I think that in every start, there's a little bit of that cat and mouse game, hitters and pitchers," he said. "But end of the day, just got to get ahead of guys. Can't strike them out if you don't get to two strikes."
Of Toronto's 50 swings in this one, only seven were whiffs, unusually low numbers for Skenes. The difference between a would-be dominant outing and Saturday's result often came down to a few two-strike pitches that were close to where he wanted them, but not quite close enough to get a swing-and-miss and that third out.
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