After becoming just the first player to make their All-Star debut one summer after being selected first overall, Paul Skenes lived up to the hype as the National League starter on Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old Skenes mowed through the top of the American League lineup, pitching a scoreless frame.
Skenes did allow Juan Soto to walk after a seven-pitch battle, but he only needed nine pitches to retire Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge.
The Pittsburgh Pirates righty ran his fastball up to 100.1 m.p.h. and used his “splinker” to force ugly swings from both Kwan and Soto.
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While he didn’t get any strikeouts, Skenes worked two-strike counts against each of the first three hitters of the innings.
With baseball fans clamouring for a Skenes-Judge matchup, it wasn’t guaranteed that the two larger-than-life stars would square off; Soto’s walk brought the American League’s cleanup hitter to the plate. The battle ended up being short-lived as Skenes got Judge to ground out on one pitch — a 99.7 m.p.h fastball.
In total, Skenes threw 16 pitches — 11 for strikes — mixing in seven splinkers, seven fastballs and two breaking pitches.
The six-foot-six fireballer has been lights out since making his MLB debut on June 11, racking up 66.1 innings over 11 starts. He has a 1.90 ERA and a 6-0 record for the Pirates, establishing himself as one of baseball’s top pitchers with 89 strikeouts and just 13 walks.
His final outing before the All-Star Break was his most impressive as a big leaguer. Going up against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, Skenes struck out 11 over 7.0 hitless innings and was removed from the game after throwing 99 pitches.
Skenes’ meteoric rise to being the NL All-Star Game starter has been fuelled by his ability to live in the triple digits with his fastball while mixing in a pretty much unhittable splinker and slider.
