PIRATES

Paul Skenes didn't throw an upper-90s fastball each time he reared back with it in the Pirates' 12-3 loss to the Dodgers here tonight at PNC Park. 

There was one particular third-inning at-bat against Alex Freeland where Skenes' fastball velocity was as low as 94.5 mph. He also hit 97, 98 on occasion with a heater he turned to 48 times. He averaged 96.9 mph with it, a figure slightly below his 97.1 season average, and still managed to get plenty of swing and miss with 12 whiffs on 28 swings. 

Skenes finished off four of his seven strikeouts with the fastball, while turning to his slider for the three others to help make up for a lack in changeup command on this particular day. 

“Probably the best it’s been in a few outings execution-wise, so we went to it a little more than we have previously," said Skenes, who allowed two runs on six hits with two walks over six innings to register his first quality start since May 12. "Just a good day, I think. Kinda comes and goes as the season goes. Just a good day with that.” 

Don Kelly agreed. 

"A lot better, and I think it was jumping and it paired off the off-speed stuff," Kelly said. "It played like it normally does with Paul.”

While Skenes is still regularly bringing it with the fastball, he's also shown that he can have success without sitting in the 98-100 range. In two of his best starts of the season against Arizona on May 6 and Colorado on May 12, Skenes' fastball averaged 97.1 and 96.3 mph, respectively. He still turned to the pitch as his go-to, and managed to complete eight scoreless innings in each outing by commanding his pitches, mixing his arsenal and, at times, still blowing stuff by hitters. 

Skenes hasn't been at his very best over his last four outings in particular, posting an 0-3 record with a uncharacteristic 4.95 ERA. Still, it's not as if he's put his team in a position where they couldn't win a game. On this night, Skenes was way more effective and was able to cover more innings than he has in nearly a month. He gave up two runs on a Kyle Tucker sacrifice fly in the second inning and a Max Muncy single that took a hop on Brandon Lowe in the sixth. Aside from that, Skenes looked relatively sharp. 

“I thought he threw the ball well," Kelly said. "To go six innings there, got up over 100 pitches and still had some left in the tank. Two runs, I thought he threw the ball really well. I thought the command was better. Velo was where it normally is and I thought that his off-speed stuff was sharper.”