Pirates Ace Paul Skenes Opens Up On Finishing Season With Sub-2 ERA

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes finished his stellar 2025 season with a strong showing in Wednesday’s start.

Skenes went six scoreless innings against the Cincinnati Reds while striking out seven. With another scoreless outing, Skenes finished the year 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA over 187.2 innings. It was a dominant sophomore season, but the right-hander isn’t putting too much stock in having a sub-2 ERA.

“Yeah, I got a hundredth worse than last year,” Skenes said, via MLB.com. “I’m actually worse than I was last year. I’m just kidding. It’s cool. I don’t come into the year with any numerical goals or anything like that, any stat goals, but it’s a product of doing what you’re supposed to do…

“Having a sub-2 (ERA) is great, but it’s not, I don’t know,” Skenes added. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a winning mentality to come out after four (innings). I didn’t think about it. I didn’t know what my ERA was during the game. I wasn’t checking anything like that. Just about winning.”

Although Skenes isn’t too concerned about the numbers, the right-hander is the favorite to win the National League Cy Young in just his second MLB season. It’s also the first sub-2.00 ERA for a starting pitcher since Justin Verlander’s 1.75 ERA with the Houston Astros in 2022.

Skenes, meanwhile, was glad he ended his season on a great outing, but is hopeful his season will extend into October next year.

“I wanted to savor it knowing this was my last outing of the year,” Skenes said. “I won’t be doing that again for six months or so. It’s kind of a tough realization. The past few days have been pretty tough for me, knowing that. Nice to have it over with. Wish I could keep pitching, just for the joy of pitching. The sub-2 is a nice little byproduct of it, I guess.”

The Pirates conclude their season with a three-game weekend road series against the Atlanta Braves.

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