The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to be in the trenches, as they are going to finish with a record below .500 for the ninth season over the past 10. There is certainly plenty of room for the Pirates to grow in the coming years, but they at least have a foundational piece in ace Paul Skenes, who ended his NL Cy Young award-caliber sophomore campaign with yet another incredible start in a 4-3 win over playoff hopeful Cincinnati Reds.
Skenes, as per usual, was at his best on the mound, and he was nearly unhittable in six innings of work. In his 32nd start of the season, the Pirates ace threw six innings of shutout ball with seven strikeouts while allowing just four hits. And in so doing, Skenes ended the season with an ERA of 1.97 to go along with 216 strikeouts in 187.2 total innings — the stuff of a legitimate ace.
It's a bit of a shame that Skenes' greatness could not propel the Pirates anywhere close to playoff contention. This makes Skenes the only pitcher in MLB history to finish a season with an ERA below 2.00 and with more than 200 strikeouts without a personal win-loss record above .500, according to OptaSTATS on X (formerly Twitter). (Skenes finished the year 10-10 and was a no-decision on Wednesday.)
The Paul Skenes clock is ticking on the Pirates
When a player as talented as Skenes is playing for a perennial losing ballclub like the Pirates, the vultures are inevitably going to circle. It's on the Pirates to surround Skenes with as much talent as possible to maximize his elite pitching displays and perhaps squeeze a few contending years out of him before their years of team control vanish.
It's a testament to how bad this current Pirates team is that Skenes, despite his consistently excellent play, has 10 losses on the year. Never mind the fact that Skenes has just 10 wins on the year; him having 10 losses speaks volumes to how Pittsburgh fails to give him consistent run support early in games, putting him in losing positions even though he's only allowed over two runs in a start six times this year.
Half of Skenes' 10 losses on the year came with him allowing just two earned runs or fewer. Two of those losses for the Pirates ace came with him pitching eight innings of one-run ball. It is clearly on the Pirates offense (and front office) that they let these gems from their ace go to waste.
