The Pittsburgh Pirates are getting their groove back after some devastating losses in their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins. They started off their pursuit of sweeping Oliver Marmol's St. Louis Cardinals in their three-game faceoff with a two-to-one scoreline win. Derek Shelton had a lot of rotational calls which got them to notch this narrow victory to move up in the NL Central. But, no other decision impacted the game more than when he elected Paul Skenes to blaze up nearly every batter that he faced.
The Pirates took the first game against the Cardinals. While it looked narrow on the stat sheet, the game told a different story and it had Paul Skenes as the main character. Much like any protagonist, he was the one in front of the screen during the vast majority of the match. This decision by Derek Shelton may have raised some eyebrows. But, those were quickly brought down when the Pirates pitcher caught an absolute heater. Even Cardinals fans loved the sight of his greatness during the seventh inning.
Paul Skenes pitched for a career-high 103 pitches which was scattered throughout six innings and one-third. It was the ninth inning when he completely popped off. Not a single batter he faced from Oliver Marmol's Cardinals system stood a chance. There were no walks during the time that he pitched. Instead, he pitched 17 strikes throughout his first 19 throws. This made him strike out 45 with less than six walks.
A big factor in his success was the changeup in his pitches. The Pirates ace rarely threw a curveball against batters. To put it into perspective, he only pitched with 18 of those throughout his five starts. But, something switched in his head and he treated the Cardinals very differently. Skenes threw off those curveballs which helped Derek Shelton's squad.
Pirates ace still growing
Skenes' game is far from perfect but this outing against the Cardinals made fans of the opposing team respect him much more. Despite the high praise from the crowd, he kept his head down and outlined the points of improvement that he needs to make, via Alex Stumpf of the MLB.
“I think a little bit of it is learning how to pitch at this level and how hitters are reacting to myself. It's cool with each outing to just learn about how hitters are looking at my stuff, attacking me. To be able to have more tools is a good thing,” he said.
The Pirates pitcher then outlined how his crucial change was essential to their win over Oliver Marmol's squad.
“I think command is a little overblown. I think control is more how it actually goes, especially when you're throwing hard. Frankly, it's kind of tougher to command pitches. So control, if that difference makes that sense,” Skenes added.
The Pirates may have found their top pitcher but they are still a long way from reaching back into glory. There are still a lot of games left. With the way the Milwaukee Brewers are slipping while they start to gain momentum, they could very well be at the top of the NL Central by the end of the regular season.
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