Paul Skenes is making just his sixth start in the Majors and third away from Pittsburgh. He took the mound in one of baseball’s most iconic venues, Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. A pretty good pitching matchup ensued between Skenes and Mike Mikolas, with both guys going into the seventh inning.
While Cardinal fans were obviously cheering for their team to win, they could not help but be impressed with Skenes’ performance. Allowing no runs of 6.1 innings pitched is impressive, especially while striking out eight and being perfect in the first time through the order.
As Skenes left the mound, he was given a standing ovation by the opposing crowd — not something you see too often in sports. A cool moment for the rookie pitcher who already looks like one of the best out there.
You can watch the full moment here.
Skenes had thrown over 90 pitches after the sixth inning and his night was presumably done. But the Pirates sent him back out there for the seventh, surpassing his career-high pitch count of 100 pitches. Even the hometown Pittsburgh television broadcast was surprised to see him.
Alec Burleson struck out to start the frame before Nolan Arenada someone got an inside fastball into the outfield. Skenes was likely batter-to-batter and after giving up the hit, Derek Shelton made the call to the bullpen.
This is just the beginning for Skenes and somehow, he has won over the crowd of a division rival in his first start against them.
Paul Skenes enjoying nice start to MLB career
This time last season, Skenes was in Omaha winning a national championship with the LSU Tigers. Pittsburgh then drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick, cementing Skenes as the franchise player. While an impact was expected at some point, even the biggest believers would not believe how well Skenes is performing thus far.
Skenes has pitched 33.1 innings thus far in his short career, giving up just nine earned runs. Opposing batters have struck out 46 times while walking six. Pittsburgh has won four of his five previous starts, with Tuesday’s result in St. Louis pending.
While they might have entered the night in last place of the NL Central, the Pirates are certainly one of the most interest teams in the league. Skenes has turned into a star, while fellow starting pitchers Jared Jones and Mitch Keller are pretty good themselves.
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