With the MLB regular season winding down, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes will only have a few more chances to pitch this year. Fortunately, he’s making the most of them.
Skenes was his usual dominant self at Camden Yards on Wednesday night, blanking the Baltimore Orioles over five innings while allowing just two hits and no walks. Despite being limited to just 64 pitches, he threw 43 of them for strikes and still racked up eight strikeouts.
His fifth strikeout of the game — a third-inning punchout of Coby Mayo — was his 200th of the season, a new career high and the first time he’s reached that milestone.
It also put Skenes in exclusive company, making him just the seventh pitcher in Pirates history to notch 200 strikeouts in a season. The most recent to do so was teammate Mitch Keller in 2023 (210).
Skenes recorded three more strikeouts before being pulled to manage his workload. His 178 innings are also a career-high and 45 more than he pitched last year.
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The NL Cy Young frontrunner left the game in line for his 11th win of the season with a 1-0 lead, only to watch the Orioles come back and win the game 2-1 in extra innings, extending Pittsburgh’s losing streak to five and clinching a losing record for the Pirates.
Still, Skenes lowered his ERA for the season to an MLB-leading 1.92. His career ERA is now 1.94 — the lowest through a pitcher’s first 53 career starts in the Live Ball Era (since 1920).
Skenes lines up to make his next start against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park next week. In the meantime, Pittsburgh will try to win Thursday’s series finale and avoid its second straight sweep behind Johan Oviedo, who’s 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP in five starts this year.
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