Paul Skenes threw eight shutout innings and allowed only two hits Tuesday night, leading the Pirates past the Colorado Rockies while pushing his season ERA to 1.98 and his career mark to 1.97.
It was the kind of outing that has become routine for him and rare for everyone else. In his past eight starts, Skenes has a 1.09 ERA with 55 strikeouts and five walks, and he has not walked a batter in a month. The right-hander did not need much help to control the game; he simply overpowered Colorado and left little doubt about who owned the night.
Afterward, Skenes was asked again about being pulled after the eighth inning, and he answered it like someone who knows the season is bigger than one start. He said manager Don Kelly is just looking out for him. “It’s a long season,” Skenes said. “It’s start nine, I think, out of 32 or 33,” he added, “and, hopefully, eight or nine more after that.”
That view matches the larger picture around Pittsburgh. The Pirates are on an 89-win pace, yet they sit in fourth place in the NL Central and are a game behind Ohtani’s Dodgers for the last wild-card spot. The margin is still thin enough to keep the club relevant, but the standings also show how much ground remains to cover if the Pirates want Skenes’ work to matter in October.
The tension is that Skenes keeps pitching like an award candidate while the team around him still has to climb. Shohei Ohtani has a 0.97 ERA on the mound and is on pace for nearly 30 home runs at the plate, with a finish likely in the 40s, which makes him the clear favorite for National League MVP if he stays healthy. Skenes, as a full-time pitcher, has a far steeper path to that trophy even as his own numbers keep shrinking. Tuesday’s shutdown only sharpened the contrast: one player is chasing dominance, and another is turning that dominance into a race against time, math and a crowded pennant picture.
There is also a warning in the Pirates’ current pace. An 89-win club can still miss the postseason, as the 89-win Diamondbacks did two years ago. That is why each Skenes outing carries more than one meaning now. It is not just about the next line in the box score. It is about whether a pitcher performing at this level can keep Pittsburgh close enough to make the rest of the schedule count.
