Pirates flame-thrower Paul Skenes shoves in 3.1 scoreless innings
Paul Skenes is making a case for the Pirates to call him up sooner rather than later. The flame-throwing righty tossed 3 1/3 scoreless frames on Thursday night for Triple-A Indianapolis.
During his outing, Skenes reached at least 100 mph on 34 of the 43 four-seam fastballs he threw while striking out eight.
Skenes has now made four starts and is tied for the MiLB lead with 27 strikeouts. The former No. 1 overall pick is tied with Tacoma’s Jhonathan Diaz for the lead, who has a total over 24 innings versus Skenes 12 2/3 innings.
“It’s gone well,” said Skenes about his first few weeks of the campaign on MLB.com. “A little bit frustrating sometimes, but I mean, taking it slow is just how it goes. But it’s gone well.”
The Pirates are purposely slow-playing Skenes’ start to his first full professional season. His 3 1/3 innings on Thursday night tied his season high, and he threw 65 pitches, 10 more than his previous start.
“We don’t want to go from 0 to 100 right away,” Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington said during a 93.7 The Fan appearance last weekend. “Paul’s so important to us long-term, so we want to be really thoughtful about that.”
Skenes has now worked 19 1/3 innings across nine professional outings. While Skenes is frustrated with his workload, the club also treated Jared Jones in a similar manner before he made his 2024 debut.
Jones made 25 starts last season between Double-A and Triple-A, tossing 126 1/3 innings with 146 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .227 batting average. Skenes is a different talent than Jones, and it’s likely he will make his big league debut at some point this season.
The Pirates may not be trying to push Skenes, but the righty is certainly pushing the envelope each time, and more and more people are taking notice.
