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Pittsburgh Pirates Take Down Chicago Cubs as Paul Skenes Continues Historic Road Dominance

The Pirates beat the Cubs in extra-innings as Skenes fired five scoreless innings on the mound.
Brady Farkas|
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) delivers against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field on June 13.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) delivers against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field on June 13. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates toppled the Chicago Cubs 2-1 on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field as starting pitcher Paul Skenes continued his historic dominance away from PNC Park.

Per Greg Harvey of OptaSTATS:

Players in MLB history to have a sub-1.25 ERA & 140+ strikeouts in a 19-game span on the road:

Paul Skenes (2024-25)
Pedro Martinez (1999-00) **HOF
Bob Gibson (1967-69) **HOF

That’s it.

Considering that Gibson and Martinez are both A-list Hall of Famers, that's special company for Skenes to be in. The burly right-hander went five scoreless innings, surrendering just four hits and two walks while striking out five. Though he didn't factor into the decision, Skenes lowered his season ERA to 1.78.

He's now 15-9 with a 1.89 ERA for his career. Already a top-three finalist for the Cy Young a year ago, Skenes could win the award outright this year. Furthermore, he was an All-Star last season and appears to be tracking for another selection this season.

The 23-year-old's performance helped the Pirates move to 29-42 on the season, but they have played better for interim manager Don Kelly since firing Derek Shelton.

The Cubs fell to 42-28 with the loss, though they continue to pace the National League Central.

The two teams will play again on Saturday afternoon with first pitch coming at 2:20 p.m. ET. Mike Burrows will start for the Pirates while left-hander Matthew Boyd goes for Chicago.

Burrows is 1-1 with a 5.00 ERA thus far while Boyd is 5-3 is a 2.89. He signed with the Cubs over the offseason.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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