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Paul Skenes Revealed What He Told Himself Before Getting Shohei Ohtani On Nasty Pitch

A ridiculous curveball Ohtani whiffed at went nearly viral from Skenes's outing on Friday night.

Josh Wilson

Skenes got Ohtani out three times on Friday
Skenes got Ohtani out three times on Friday / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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Paul Skenes and three Pittsburgh Pirates relievers—Ryan Borucki, Dennis Santana and David Bednar—combined for a shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, who are certainly not short on bats. It was the exact sort of performance you hope to see from a young ace going up against one of the best teams in baseball.

While the result was great, Skenes was not perfect, including getting himself into a hole in the fifth inning with reigning NL MVP Shohei Ohtani at the plate and a runner in scoring position. The count went to 3-1 before a fouled-off splitter loaded the count. Then, Skenes dropped in a curveball that Ohtani whiffed at, marking the third time Skenes got Ohtani out that night to end his work for the inning.

Here's a look at that pitch:

After the game, Skenes gave some insight into his thought process as he battled back from 3-1.

"Let's see what I'm made of," Skenes said he remembered thinking, as told by Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. "Let's see where my stuff is."

The phenom pitcher admitted his real first thought, though, was, "Crap." But he quickly locked in and went to work.

But who could blame him for that first thought? With just three runs of support and one of the game's best batters at the plate for the third time in the game with a runner in scoring position, it was a stacked deck against Skenes. He did what good pitchers do: Battled.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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