Paul Skenes has taken baseball by storm in his two seasons. He has won a Rookie of the Year award and a Cy Young Award already, and has become a must-watch pitcher, as was apparent when Skenes took a bullpen session at Spring Training.
While the young pitcher has been everything Pittsburgh Pirates fans could dream of, Skenes is giving the Pirates fans something to dream about, per Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette Sports.
“I’m planning to throw seven months of baseball starting March 26. I don’t know how many innings you play in the postseason, but the plan is to be built up, ramped up for that,” Skenes said.
Just seeing the postseason would be huge for the Pirates. They have not seen the postseason since losing in the Wild Card game against the Chicago Cubs in 2015. Further, the Pirates have not won a postseason game since the 2013 NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals. Skenes would have been just 11-years old when that happened.
The two-time all-star was not alive the last time the Pirates won a postseason series. They do have a single game win in 2013 over the Cincinnati Reds, before losing to the Cardinals in five games in the next round, but the last time the team won a full series was in 1979. They won the World Series that year.
It may be a small miracle for the teams to make it to the playoffs, as the Pirates are not projected to be a good team this year. Still, once every five games, they will have a star on the mound to get them a win.
