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Paul Skenes pitches against the Cubs on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

There’s no denying Paul Skenes’ greatness. 

Through 38 career starts the 23 year old has produced a 1.89 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 229 innings. He's struck out 267 batters and has never allowed more than six hits in a start. 

Skenes is now taking it up a notch and is in one of the best stretches of his young career. Over his last six starts, Skenes has thrown 41 1/3 innings while recording a 0.87 ERA and 0.65 WHIP. He's given up 20 hits, walked seven and struck out 44. In terms of earned runs, innings pitched and hits allowed, it's his best six-game stretch.

"I mean, shoot, that's just the way he is. I don't know if there's one thing that I could necessarily point to," Don Kelly said of what's been working for his young ace. "Fastball has been electric. He's gone to the offspeed pretty well. He's throwing strikes."

Today’s gutsy effort in the Pirates’ 2-1 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field was the latest example. It wasn't his best. He gutted through one of the best lineups in Major League Baseball to throw five scoreless innings, scatter four hits, strike out five and walk two. He threw 95 pitches, 34 of which came in the third inning when four of the five batters he faced saw six or more and two saw nine or more.

"We just made pitches when we needed to. Unfortunately it took longer than we wanted," Skenes said. "We got into some situations we didn't want to get into. Executed when we needed to. Five scoreless is not terrible, at the end of the day."

Skenes insists that he hasn’t changed anything: "Probably just a good stretch,” he would say. “... I don't think it's super complicated." 

Even in his young career, that’s never been the case. The hard-throwing phenom consistently looks for ways to improve. From tinkering with his mechanics to adding pitches to his already exceptional arsenal that includes an electric fastball…

… an out-of-this world splinker and this vicious two-seamer:

Skenes also worked to improve his execution after walking 11 in a three-game stretch earlier this season. In the six starts since, he's walked seven and had the 13th-lowest walk rate (3.8%) among major-league starters over that span coming into today.

"That is just what makes him, him," Henry Davis told me. "Finding ways to continue to get better. He’s not satisfied. Anywhere he’s at, he’s always going to try and find ways to get better." 

Skenes' recent success has a lot to do with his talent and the work he puts in daily to sustain it. He has other ideas, though. What about the defense behind him? 

One could consider that notion when the Pirates have produced these types of plays in Skenes’ last two starts: 

Also consider this: Skenes has made seven starts since Kelly took over on May 9 and in that time, the Pirates have statistically been one of the best defenses in Major League Baseball. Heading into Monday's game against the Marlins, they had the second-best fielding percentage (.992) since Kelly took over and have committed three errors since.  

“I mean you look at ERA, specifically, it’s not a perfect stat because it takes defense into account. But there’s a reason that if you have low ERA, you probably have a good defense," Skenes told me. "So, they’ve been doing a really good job behind me. I mean, all our other pitchers, we’re a pretty dang good pitching staff and at the end of the day, it’s about getting outs. You can’t do that alone.” 

The only thing that would make this stretch better is getting run support from one of the worst offenses in baseball. He's 1-2 during this stretch and the Pirates have scored 11 runs when he's been in the game. Eight of those came in his only win. He can't control that. 

So, he just keeps taking the mound and raising the bar.