Pirates' Paul Skenes Shows Up in Biggest Moment of Season
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CHICAGO — Paul Skenes hasn't had many consequential starts in his MLB career, but he put up one of his better outings of the season in his most important start.
Skenes pitched with conviction against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sept. 12, allowing two solo home runs over seven innings, but allowing two other hits and a walk.
He tied his longest outing after the All-Star break, and had the Pirates with a 3-2 lead after he departed, before left-handed pitcher Gregory Soto gave up two runs in the eighth inning in the 4-3 loss.
Skenes may not have gotten the Pirates the win, but he did what was needed and put his team in the best position for a big victory in a crucial part of the season.
How Skenes Excelled Against the Cubs
Skenes didn't beat the Cubs with a ton of strikeouts, recording just four and only a 29% whiff rate, so he didn't overpower them.
He relied instead on executing his pitches, with a 64% first-pitch strike rate, and inducing weak contact, six hard-hits (95+ mph exit velocity) on 19 batted-ball events, 31.6%.
Skenes used his four-seam fastball about 40% of the time, but increased his slider (27%) and sinker usage (18%), compared to 8% and 12% on average this season.
He succeeded with both pitches, no hits on four batted ball events for his slider and two strikeouts on his sinker, both of which he attributed to his solid outing.
"Getting ahead for the most part, and landing some of the off-speed," Skenes said. "Four-seam was solid; sinker was solid, so just got a fair amount of weak contact with that."
Skenes wasn't perfect in this outing, as he did give up two solo home runs, which threatened to ruin his afternoon.
His first home run was a 95.6 mph four-seam fastball on the outer edge that Cubs first baseman Michael Busch sent 101.6 mph and 415 feet to center field in the first inning.
Skenes' second home run was a 94.8 mph four-seam fastball over the middle of the plate to Cubs second baseman Pedro Ramírez, who sent it 98.2 mph and 393 feet to right-center field in the third inning, putting the Cubs up 2-0.
It would've been easy for Skenes to let that cascade into future problems, but he settled in, avoided rallies with two big double plays in the fourth and sixth innings and allowed just one baserunner over his final three innings.
"Yeah, I mean, solo home runs shouldn't beat you unless you give up a bunch of them," Skenes said on his home runs. "And yeah, so to only give up two solo home runs today, I think it was a pretty good day.
"And then, I mean, always with that stuff, you just get back to executing pitches. It's not...it's hard to learn how to do but I don't think it's...I think pretty much everybody here can do that. It's kind of, it's kind of what you need to pitch in the big leagues."
Skenes Comes Through For Pirates In Biggest Start of 2026
The Pirates needed a win in this game, and Skenes got them as close as he could, despite the defeat.
Skenes hadn't thrown seven innings in a start since July 19 in a 7-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field, his first outing following the All-Star break.
He was also at 82 pitches, and with how he was pitching, he likely deserved another couple of batters or a full inning.
Pirates manager Don Kelly praised Skenes for his command in this important outing, but he wasn't letting Skenes go longer than those seven innings.
“I mean, he hasn’t gone seven innings since, I don’t even know, the middle of May, and went seven innings one time in the second half," Kelly said. "So to give us seven innings at 82 [pitches]. He hasn’t been over 93 pitches and has been dealing with some stuff in this second half. He gave us everything he had today.”
The Pirates are now 74-75 with 13 games left and sit six-and-a-half games back in the National League Wild Card race, a big challenge for this team to make the postseason at this point.
Skenes did what he needed to do against the Cubs in the first seriously significant September start of his career.
It's a great sign that he can do this going forward, especially if the Pirates are in a better spot in 2027, and his confidence in his teammates shows he believes he can bring winning baseball to Pittsburgh.
"Just got to turn the page," Skenes said. "We've done a really good job of that all year, and I know we'll do a good job of that, you know. After today and into the next, you know, two weeks really. Just got to turn the page and play our game."
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Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.