Believe it or not, Paul Skenes doesn't spend his spare time, between splinkers and sweepers and all those strikeouts, picturing himself in pinstripes.

He pitches for the Pirates.

And if I've picked up anything about this extraordinary young man in the couple years since the baseball gods for some reason bequeathed this once-in-a-blue-moon blessing on one of professional sports' most woebegone franchises, it's that he lives his life just as he pitches:

Yep. In the here and now.

In this particular here and now, this steamy Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, the kid picked apart the Arizona lineup -- including poor Corbin Carroll above on a sweeper right down Grant Street -- for six scoreless innings amid nine strikeouts against three hits and a walk. Of his 99 pitches, 62 were strikes. Of those strikes, 20 were whiffs.

Final: Pirates 6, Diamondbacks 0

Updated season ERA: 1.83

Major League Baseball rank: 1

And it's hardly close on the latter count: Next-lowest ERA belongs to Detroit's brilliant Tarik Skubal at 2.09. Which, of course, makes Skenes ... beyond brilliant.

"Really, it's unbelievable," Don Kelly would marvel after this one. "Like, Paul maybe didn't have the fastball command that we've seen, but the changeup, the sweeper ... he's got so many options to go to with his arsenal."

He knows it, too. And not at all in any cocky form.

For example, when he says something akin to "It was a really well-pitched game on my part," as he did after this performance, he's not at all bragging or boasting. Rather, he's comparing this to another of his own games. Or, he's citing something specific within his plan for the day, which, in this case, was to get as deep as possible into the start while understanding his pitch limit wouldn't be much higher than 90.

He seems to know this, too: He wants to win. And soon. And yeah, here.

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Skenes legit likes Pittsburgh. No one's forced him to attend those events involving the Steelers or Penguins, or to go boating on the Allegheny River with best bud Jared Jones on a team day off or, in general, to embrace the fans at the ballpark as he visibly has. No one had to sell him any further on how the city loves its sporting heroes than after he heard it from Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby and, right in his own world, Andrew McCutchen. He's experienced it. He's felt it.

Here's what he doesn't like:

DKPS

And although he's continued to excel throughout all this losing, which is founded almost entirely on an awful offense that the resident GM either won't or can't fix, that shouldn't be mistaken for apathy related to the standings. I've heard him say, "It's no fun." I've heard him cite the exact number of games the Pirates were below .500 that day, something I don't recall hearing from anyone at any level. I've seen him ... take some of it hard.

Remember Philadelphia?

SPORTSNET PITTSBURGH

Remember how he told me out there after that loss that nobody should've read into the above expression that'd been caught on camera in watching another lead get blown?

I don't know about that. He's done too much winning, in life and in baseball, having arrived right after leading LSU to College World Series glory.

So, where is he now?

He and I spoke after this game about the Pirates' future in advance of the July 31 trade deadline and, my goodness, he didn't disappoint.

I asked if he shares my stance that this team isn't far from having what it needs.

"It's not," he replied. "I mean, we didn't think we were that far away last year, either, so there are obviously moves we need to make. I'm not the GM, so I can't tell you exactly what those moves are."

He laughed a little with that.

"You know, we can play GM and do all that. But with the deadline coming, obviously, we need to make the team better for next year and, hopefully, put us in a position where we can make some moves in the offseason, too. So that's kind of what I'm expecting."

He paused and emphasized, "That's what I'm hoping. I know that's what a lot of other guys in this locker room are hoping, 'cause, I think, obviously out on the field, we have some guys who've grown this year, who've gotten better, and other guys who've, you know, probably under-performed a little bit."

Compared to their career norms, I clarified.

"Right. Yeah. And so, there's real room to get guys that we already have better."

It's then that he glanced about the clubhouse. Initially toward Oneil Cruz, who'd had a superlative day of his own, highlighted by scoring from first base on a single.

"I think Oneil's grown a lot this year," Skenes proceeded. "You'd agree?"

Oh, no question.

"I think Nick Gonzales has grown this year."

Full agreement here again. Both at the plate and at second base.

"And that'll continue, I think. Other guys, too. We've just got to find players who are gonna put us in positions to help them grow. I think, you know ..."

Pause here.

"We don't have losing players, necessarily. I think we have players who need to be taught how to win."

He tilted his head at that, apparently wondering if I grasped that. 

I told him I thought I did. And that's principally because, on those precious occasions when these Pirates have hit, even a little, they've been capable of a lot. It's been a bizarre season in that regard alone, that they've literally overwhelmed some opponents with all the pitching once the hitting's something better than catastrophic.

The Pirates when they score four runs are now 28-14.

Four. Freaking. Runs.

Better believe he knows that, too.

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No, I'm not about to veer off into another Ben Cherington rant. Which is fine because my voice doesn't matter much more than that of anyone else on the outside.

Skenes' voice matters, though, probably more than anyone's below Bob Nutting himself.

Those two communicate, by the way. They had a face-to-face back when Nutting fired Derek Shelton, as did other pivotal players with the owner. The emphasis at the time was how to finish out 2025, how to keep focuses sharp and spirits relatively high.

But the record's 44-62 now, there's no salvaging anything shy of individual stat lines, and the internal talk's now all about 2026. That's begun with Cherington repeatedly mentioning that season in his past few media availabilities.

"Our goal is to put the Pirates in a stronger position going into 2026," he'd say this morning. "There's lots of different things that need to happen for us to accomplish that. It's not going to be from a single decision. It may be that we can acquire, whether it's this week or this offseason, players who jump right onto the roster or might soon jump right on the roster. It also may be that we trade for players who are further along."

It also may be that there's a new GM, as I've reported for weeks now. There's a decided dissatisfaction with Cherington's work to date, all the way to the top, and I'm not sure anything at the deadline can save him considering I've also been told that any and all transactions will take place only through the tightest of leashes.

All that I know for certain: There'll be no rebuild. Not with this GM. Not with any new GM.

The Skenes clock is ticking.