Sure, Paul Skenes was dazzling in his debut after the Pittsburgh Pirates called up the number one prospect in baseball last Saturday.
The LSU product struck out seven batters in his first Major League start while giving up six hits, three earned runs and two walks over four innings in a 10-9 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
The only problem was that the way the schedule lined up, Skenes was going to have to face the Cubs for his second career start, too. This time at Wrigley Field. Surely there was no way he’d be able to fool the Pirates’ division rivals twice in one week, right? Hitters always adjust, right?
Well, Skenes adjusts, too. And he tried to warn the Cubs about what was coming on Friday before they even stepped to the plate.
“Go ahead and adjust. Good luck.” -Paul Skenes on hitters having more film to watch now pic.twitter.com/nzq9wwStBc
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 17, 2024
“Go ahead and adjust,” Skenes said with a smile. “Good luck.”
Then he went out and struck out 11 batters over six no-hit innings with just one walk. It took him 100 pitches, 67 of which went for strikes and defied physics with movement like this:
All 11 Paul Skenes strikeouts from his six no-hit innings! pic.twitter.com/mFvcfYhKLY
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 17, 2024
It goes without saying that this is both not normal and also extremely terrifying for the rest of baseball.
First of all, pitches shouldn’t be allowed to move like that and sit at 100 miles per hour. This guy is a wizard. He struck out the first seven batters he faced on Friday, just one shy of the all-time rookie record held by Jacob deGrom and Jim Deshaies. Instead he settles for the fifth-longest strikeout streak to begin a game in MLB history as Pittsburgh went on to win 9-3.
When Skenes says “good luck” he apparently means it in the way Liam Neeson does in Taken. It’s both genuine and a warning.
Of course the Pirates star is confident in his arsenal. After seeing what he did at Wrigley, it’d be impossible to feel any other way.
