Paul Skenes was cruising through 6 2/3 innings and had retired 20 straight batters before Milwaukee's Jake Bauers broke up his bids for both a perfect game and no-hitter with a seventh-inning single tonight here at American Family Field.
Skenes ended up allowing the one hit and struck out seven batters over seven scoreless innings, while the Pirates' bats provided plenty of offense in a 6-0 win over the Brewers. With his performance, Skenes joined BobFriend (Sept. 7, 1955 at Chicago), WoodieFryman (July 1, 1966 at New York), A.J. Burnett (April 17, 2013 vs. St. Louis), NickKingham (April 29, 2018 vs. St. Louis) and JaredJones (May 4, 2024 vs. Colorado) as the only Pirates starters with seven-plus scoreless innings, one or zero hits allowed, zero walks and seven strikeouts in a game in the Modern Era (since 1901).
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Skenes also tied NellieBriles (Aug. 22, 1972 at San Francisco), BertBlyleven (Aug. 16, 1980 vs. Montreal) and NickKingham (April 29, 2018 vs. St. Louis, MLB debut) for the third-longest perfect game bid (6 2/3 innings) by a Pirate in the Expansion Era (since 1961), trailing only KenBrett (eight innings, May 27, 1974 vs. San Diego) and JeffKarstens (7 2/3 innings, Aug. 6, 2008 at Arizona).
“When we step on the field and he’s throwing, it just gives us so much confidence, just to have his back," KonnorGriffin said. "We want to win for him. To go out there and be able to do that, he deserves it. Pitching seven innings, giving up only one hit, he deserves to see us score four, five, six runs on the board. Glad we could get it done for him.”
Skenes didn't just luck into perfection over six-plus innings. He was dominant. SpencerHorwitz told me that, from his point of view over at first base, Skenes had every pitch going.
"He was in, out, up, down, fastball's in, fastball's away. He had it all, any pitch, any count," Horwitz said. "Paul does a great job of attacking hitters while also getting strikeouts and there's a fine line of trying to strike everyone out and getting your pitch count up so you're kind of hurting the bullpen at that time, but he doesn't do that. He goes right at guys and his stuff's that good that guys are going to miss and he's still going to be at a low pitch count."
Skenes, who now owns a 2.48 ERA and 0.72 WHIP over six starts this season, threw 93 pitches and leaned heavily on his fastball (38 times) and splinker (27). He finished off all seven of his strikeouts with those two pitches and generated 10 whiffs. DonKelly described Skenes' stuff as "elite" and said his splinker almost resembled a slider from the side. Skenes has turned to his splinker less often over these last two years, but he proved today that it's still a perfectly useful complementary piece.
"Just gotta remind everybody I still got it," Skenes said with a smile.
THE ASYLUM
Skenes dominant in search of perfection
Paul Skenes was cruising through 6 2/3 innings and had retired 20 straight batters before Milwaukee's Jake Bauers broke up his bids for both a perfect game and no-hitter with a seventh-inning single tonight here at American Family Field.
Skenes ended up allowing the one hit and struck out seven batters over seven scoreless innings, while the Pirates' bats provided plenty of offense in a 6-0 win over the Brewers. With his performance, Skenes joined Bob Friend (Sept. 7, 1955 at Chicago), Woodie Fryman (July 1, 1966 at New York), A.J. Burnett (April 17, 2013 vs. St. Louis), Nick Kingham (April 29, 2018 vs. St. Louis) and Jared Jones (May 4, 2024 vs. Colorado) as the only Pirates starters with seven-plus scoreless innings, one or zero hits allowed, zero walks and seven strikeouts in a game in the Modern Era (since 1901).
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Skenes also tied Nellie Briles (Aug. 22, 1972 at San Francisco), Bert Blyleven (Aug. 16, 1980 vs. Montreal) and Nick Kingham (April 29, 2018 vs. St. Louis, MLB debut) for the third-longest perfect game bid (6 2/3 innings) by a Pirate in the Expansion Era (since 1961), trailing only Ken Brett (eight innings, May 27, 1974 vs. San Diego) and Jeff Karstens (7 2/3 innings, Aug. 6, 2008 at Arizona).
“When we step on the field and he’s throwing, it just gives us so much confidence, just to have his back," Konnor Griffin said. "We want to win for him. To go out there and be able to do that, he deserves it. Pitching seven innings, giving up only one hit, he deserves to see us score four, five, six runs on the board. Glad we could get it done for him.”
Skenes didn't just luck into perfection over six-plus innings. He was dominant. Spencer Horwitz told me that, from his point of view over at first base, Skenes had every pitch going.
"He was in, out, up, down, fastball's in, fastball's away. He had it all, any pitch, any count," Horwitz said. "Paul does a great job of attacking hitters while also getting strikeouts and there's a fine line of trying to strike everyone out and getting your pitch count up so you're kind of hurting the bullpen at that time, but he doesn't do that. He goes right at guys and his stuff's that good that guys are going to miss and he's still going to be at a low pitch count."
Skenes, who now owns a 2.48 ERA and 0.72 WHIP over six starts this season, threw 93 pitches and leaned heavily on his fastball (38 times) and splinker (27). He finished off all seven of his strikeouts with those two pitches and generated 10 whiffs. Don Kelly described Skenes' stuff as "elite" and said his splinker almost resembled a slider from the side. Skenes has turned to his splinker less often over these last two years, but he proved today that it's still a perfectly useful complementary piece.
"Just gotta remind everybody I still got it," Skenes said with a smile.
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