Skenes' first 10 starts put him in rare MLB company

PITTSBURGH -- PNC Park’s faithful rose to their feet and started to build to a roar as Paul Skenes got set to deliver an 0-2 pitch to Harrison Bader. Pitching in front of a sellout home crowd for the first time in his Major League career, Skenes’ slider went strike to ball, and all Bader could do was swing through Skenes’ 107th pitch of the night. The 22-year-old phenom let his momentum follow through, and he smacked his glove as the home crowd erupted and gave him a standing ovation while he walked off the field for the final time.

Playing in front of the second home sellout crowd of the season -- the other being the home opener on April 5 -- it’s clear that people are willing to flock to the North Shore to see this young man pitch.

“There's a different atmosphere in the ballpark when he pitches,” said Derek Shelton before the game. “... I do think there's a different buzz in our ballpark, and I think our players enjoy that."

It sure looked like the players enjoyed that extra buzz, too, as the Pirates homered seven times to beat the Mets, 14-2, on Friday. But it was Skenes who set the pace, going seven innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts to get his fifth Major League win. He didn’t have his best fastball early, but eventually found it and got stronger as the game progressed.

“I don’t think that’s a guy that needs 14,” Bryan Reynolds said. “I guess we’re trying to make up for some lost time right there.”

Skenes’ big league career is now 10 starts old. In that time, he’s gone 5-0 with a 2.12 ERA and 78 strikeouts over 59 1/3 innings. He was billed as a generational prospect, and his first few months in the Majors have supported that.

To rattle off some of his accomplishments and where he stands in terms of MLB history through 10 starts:

• Skenes and Masahiro Tanaka are the only pitchers to ever strike out at least 70 hitters while issuing 12 or fewer walks in their first 10 starts. Tanaka had 79 strikeouts to 10 walks, while Skenes has 78 punchouts to 12 walks.
• Skenes' 78 strikeouts through his first 10 starts ranks eighth among pitchers since 1901. The only pitchers in the 21st century to eclipse him are Tanaka and Stephen Strasburg with 79. Of all of those pitchers, Skenes’ 14 runs allowed is the fewest.

• Skenes has recorded seven or more strikeouts in nine of his 10 career outings, setting the Major League record for most within a player’s first 10 career games.
• And, oh yeah, the velocity. Skenes has thrown 74 pitches at 100+ mph -- more than twice as many as the next closest starting pitcher (José Soriano of the Angels with 36).

“He’s consistent,” Reynolds said. “Just shows up, does his thing and doesn’t get rattled. He just competes. His stuff plays, obviously. He’s special.”

It’s probably not fair to say the league is starting to take notice now of how special he is since there have been eyeballs on him ever since the Pirates took him first overall in last year’s MLB Draft, but the conversation is starting to shift to whether Skenes has done enough in his abbreviated campaign to be an All-Star. The numbers speak for themselves, and Will Leitch made the case that Skenes should actually get the start.

“I do think with the numbers he has, the numbers he's put up, I bet he's going to enter the conversation,” Shelton said. “There's a lot of good starting pitching and there's a lot of good pitching in the National League. It's going to be a challenge for whoever is deciding."

The Pirates have several players worthy of serious All-Star consideration in addition to Skenes, like Reynolds and Mitch Keller, but for him to be in the conversation already is certainly telling.

“I would love to be there, but it’s obviously not my decision to make,” Skenes said. “I think part of it is you have to have 18-19 starts in the big leagues at this point. I’m obviously not there yet. I don’t know. I’ll let everybody else decide.”

News of the decision will come this Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET, when All-Star rosters are announced on ESPN.