Paul Skenes is the future of Major League Baseball. We learned this on the day that he first toed the rubber at Air Force and had it confirmed during his dominant national championship season at LSU.
Even though Pittsburgh is being very careful with his arm, the 21-year-old is already making his presence felt on the professional level!
Skenes carries a 2.25 ERA with 21 strikeouts and only four walks through his first 16 innings with the Pirates. He is 1-0 in three starts and has allowed just one run in each of his last two.
That includes another strong outing on Thursday.
The 6-foot-6, 235-pound rookie faced the San Francisco Giants for the first time. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh blew a four-run lead after Skenes came out of the game in the seventh inning and lost.
Despite the final result, the Pirates’ No. 1 overall pick in last year’s MLB Draft threw six innings of one-run ball with six hits and three strikeouts. Two thirds of his 93 pitches were strikes.
His stuff was stuffing!
One particular pitch should be labeled as NSFW. The MLB posted a slow-motion video of Skenes’ splitter that is disgusting to the point where it will induce vomiting.
Jorge Soler has been swinging at everything this season, sure, but that does not discredit the nastiness!
It’s clips like these that serve as a great reminder that baseball is so much harder than it looks. It might even be the hardest sport on the planet.
What is Soler supposed to do in that situation??
Paul Skenes is taking MLB by storm and brought life to an organization that has been terrible in recent years. If the Pittsburgh Pirates can continue to build around their new ace, he is the kind of guy you want to pitch during Game 7 of the World Series— ice cold and downright disgusting!