The Pittsburgh Pirates' 2025 season is coming to a close this weekend. It has been a long year for those playing near Three Rivers once again, with the Pirates 20 games under .500 with four games remaining. At the very least, starting pitcher Paul Skenes has proven that what he did during his rookie season was not an anomaly.
He was easily one of the best pitchers in all of baseball and put his skills on display in his final start of the season.
Skenes dominated the Cincinnati Reds lineup. He tossed six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits while striking out seven. The Pirates' ace was in line for the win until Pittsburgh's bullpen blew his victory, yet again.
Starling Marte hit a solo shot in the 8th to cut into the Reds' deficit. Then, in the bottom of the 9th, Tyler Stephenson took Pirates reliever Dennis Santana deep for a game-tying home run.
The Pirates ultimately won the game in 11 innings.
But this was a microcosm of Skenes' season. He will finish the year with a 10-10 record, a record commonly seen by a mid-rotation guy. But Skenes finished the year with a stellar 1.97 ERA, to go with 216 strikeouts, a 0.95 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), and a 5-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio.
In other words, he tied for 39th in the league in wins. But he was top-5 in every other category. After Wednesday's start, he became the first person in MLB history to post a sub-2.00 ERA, with 200 strikeouts without a winning record.
Pittsburgh had hopes that this year that players like O'Neil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds could take the offense to new heights. Instead, Cruz is hitting .201 while Reynolds has hit just 16 home runs.
Unfortunately, it may only be a matter of time before Skenes plays elsewhere.
