Many of Paul Skenes’ starts involve him finding his way into the record books, and his latest one was no exception.
Skenes was his usual dominant self against the Minnesota Twins on Friday night, firing five innings of two-run ball at Target Field. He allowed five hits, walked none and struck out six while throwing 53 of his 78 pitches for strikes in the series opener.
Unfortunately, he once again received little run support, resulting in a 2-1 defeat and his eighth loss of the season after getting outdueled by fellow All-Star Joe Ryan in a tough matchup.
On the plus side, Skenes notched his 300th career strikeout with his fifth K of the evening, getting Matt Wallner looking to end the fourth inning.
Friday’s outing was Skenes’ 43rd career start, making him the 17th pitcher in Major League history and the first in Pirates history with at least 300 strikeouts over his first 43 career starts.
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With 301 career punchouts, Skenes has averaged exactly seven whiffs per start despite his innings being somewhat limited by management.
The 23-year-old is only in his second season, but his career is already off to a Hall of Fame-caliber start. Already a two-time All-Star, he’s 15-11 with a 1.98 ERA, a 0.94 WHIP and a 10.7 K/9 over his first 254 innings, immediately establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball.
After a strong end to the first half, Skenes could be in line to be the National League starting pitcher in next week’s All-Star Game for the second straight season. After that, the NL Cy Young candidate will look to pick up where he left off after the break and try to earn his first win since May 28.
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