Terry Francona has managed thousands of games in his Major League career, but he’d never faced Paul Skenes before Thursday night.
While the 66-year-old Cincinnati Reds manager has seen countless Hall of Fame hurlers during his playing days and managerial career, he was nevertheless impressed by the historically great Pittsburgh Pirates ace, who pitched the Pirates to a 7-0 victory over the Reds in Thursday’s series opener at PNC Park.
“I’d seen enough of him on TV to know you have your hands full. We knew that,” Francona said after the game. “But I actually thought our guys did a pretty good job. We didn’t chase him around. By that, I mean we didn’t try to follow every pitch and got a little stubborn and had some hits. Like a really good pitcher, he made really good pitches when he needed to.”
Despite allowing a career-high seven hits (including a single to former teammate Ke’Bryan Hayes), Skenes didn’t allow any runs, lowering his MLB-leading ERA to 1.94 over six shutout frames. The NL Cy Young frontrunner racked up eight strikeouts, didn’t walk anyone and threw 69 of his 97 pitches for strikes.
Skenes bore down with runners on base, not allowing any hits with runners in scoring position and preventing Cincinnati from reaching third base. That’s been a theme for him all season, as opponents are batting just .175 against him with runners in scoring position this year.
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Thursday was Skenes’ fifth straight scoreless outing at PNC Park, extending his scoreless innings streak at home to 27 2/3. The two-time All-Star also continued his mastery of the Reds, improving to 4-0 with a 0.39 ERA and 33 strikeouts in four career starts against them.
For the record, Skenes’ manager was also impressed with his outing.
“Attacked the strike zone, got ahead, and the stuff was elite,” Don Kelly said. “Every time he goes out it’s unbelievable — just the way that he’s able to attack hitters with different mixes, the stuff that he’s got, the way he gets after it.”
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Featured image via Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images