Paul Skenes is numbingly consistent. With another gem Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies (no earned runs in 7 2/3 innings), the Pittsburgh Pirates ace has allowed two earned runs or less in 32 of his 37 major league starts.
It may be easy to miss his brilliance over his first 13 months in the majors. Skenes’s excellence is obscured by Pittsburgh’s futility, its first three-game winning streak notwithstanding. The Pirates have been in last place in 106 of their 189 games since Skenes made his debut May 11, 2024. He has only four wins in 14 starts this year despite a 1.88 ERA because Pittsburgh is scoring fewer runs per game than any Pirates team in the last 108 years (3.15).
