Team USA’s Paul Skenes Has Eye-Popping Stats vs. Dominican Republic Hitters

Skenes has fared quite well in his MLB career against the Dominican Republic's mighty lineup.

Skenes fired four scoreless innings while striking out seven in his first WBC start. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

While it's not quite 2023 Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout, baseball fans will get to see a real clash of the titans matchup in the World Baseball Classic semifinal between Team USA and Team Dominican Republic on Sunday.

The Americans will send 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes to the mound to face the Dominican Republic's mighty lineup, which has scored the most runs and tied a record for the most home runs in a single tourney. It doesn't get any better for baseball fans than watching a power pitcher like Skenes take on some of the game's best hitters, such as Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It's a strength-on-strength matchup—and one that has actually been dominated by Skenes in his appearances against many of the Dominican Republic's top hitters in MLB.

How Dominican Republic lineup has performed head-to-head vs. Paul Skenes

Before we dive into the numbers, it's worth noting that we're dealing with small sample sizes here. The Dominican Republic's projected starting lineup has only faced Skenes a total of 27 times in the big leagues—and two of the team's top sluggers, outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and third baseman Manny Machado, have yet to face Skenes in their respective careers.

But even with that context, these numbers are very impressive. The likes of Ketel Marte, Soto, Guerrero, Junior Caminero, Gerardo Perdomo, Austin Wells, and Julio Rodriguez are a combined 3-for-27 against Skenes with two doubles, two walks, two RBI and seven strikeouts. Here is a look at each hitter's stats vs. Skenes.

Player Name	Hits	At-Bats	Strikeouts	RBI
Ketel Marte	0	5	0	1
Juan Soto	0	3	2	0
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	0	2	1	1
Junior Caminero	0	3	0	0
Julio Rodriguez	3	6	2	0
Gerardo Perdomo	0	7	2	0
Austin Wells	0	1	0	0

What it means for Skenes, Dominican Republic

In addition to the Dominican Republic's projected starting lineup, the likes of Amed Rosario—1-for-2 with a strikeout—and Carlos Santana—0-for-3 with two strikeouts—have also faced off against Skenes.

Interestingly enough, the Dominican Republic sluggers have yet to homer off of Skenes in MLB—and only Rodriguez, who doubled twice, has managed to even collect a hit off of the Pirates ace righthander.

It means that, small sample size or not, some of the best hitters in the world have been uncomfortable in the batter's box against Skenes. Not exactly surprising, given that the Pirates ace owns the lowest career ERA (1.96) through the first 55 starts of a pitcher's career since 1920. If nothing else, the success Skenes has enjoyed against these sluggers bodes well for Team USA.

However, let's not forget that neither Tatis, who leads the Dominican Republic in RBIs with 11, or Machado, who is tied for the team lead in walks with six, has faced Skenes—and the Padres stars have been two of the country's toughest at-bats in the tourney. Plus, the entire Dominican Republic squad is entering Sunday's semifinal riding a heater.

The Dominican Republic is feeling good in the box, feeling confident and spreading good vibes all around the ballpark—seemingly every home run hit is like a fiesta. As good as Skenes looked in his first WBC start against Mexico, there's something to be said for the fact that he could be running into the Dominican Republic lineup at the wrong time. In other words, the head-to-head stats would seem to give Skenes a tactical leg-up, but anything can happen Sunday. It's baseball.

How could Skenes approach the Dominican Republic lineup?

Skenes threw fastballs roughly 38% of the time in 2025, an approach he largely stuck to against Mexico. What was interesting is that Skenes threw more sinkers and changeups to Mexico's lineup than he did on average during his Cy Young Award-winning campaign in '25. Skenes, a power pitcher who likes to pump his upper-90s fastball up in the zone, isn't likely to shy away from doing so against the Dominican Republic.

But, given the Dominican Republic's collective success at mashing fastballs and struggles with offspeed/breaking pitches, it's likely that Skenes could deviate from his fastball-heavy approach just a bit to keep the team's sluggers from sitting on his heater.

One thing is for sure. This is going to be one fun matchup to watch.

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