The Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals played an exciting game on Tuesday, one that featured a pitching duel between young ace Paul Skenes and veteran starter Lance Lynn.
In the end, the Cardinals came out on top and handed Skenes his first career loss.
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It wasn’t, by any means, Skenes’ fault, though.
He had pitched eight magnificent frames in which he conceded a single run, but his manager opted to send him to the mound to open the ninth inning.
That proved to be the wrong decision: Skenes is fantastic, but by that point, Cards’ hitters had gotten three or four looks against him and his stuff.
Skenes surrendered a leadoff double in the frame, and after getting a groundout, conceded a single that broke the tie.
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Despite the loss, he tossed 8.1 solid innings of two runs, no walks and eight strikeouts.
He was dominant and ended up creating a whole new club, just for himself.
“Every pitcher in history to strike out 80+ batters in the first 12 starts of their MLB career while allowing fewer than 20 runs: 1. Paul Skenes (97 strikeouts, 16 runs allowed). That’s it. That’s the list,” Codify Baseball tweeted.
Every pitcher in history to strike out 80+ batters in the first 12 starts of their MLB career while allowing fewer than 20 runs:
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1. Paul Skenes (97 strikeouts, 16 runs allowed)
That’s it. That’s the list. pic.twitter.com/IMHJkBhzIJ
Skenes has given the Pirates something they lacked for years: a true, bonafide ace.
Now, their rotation went from being a liability for years to a true strength: it has Mitch Keller, Jared Jones, Luis Ortiz, and of course Skenes.
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His season ERA is now 1.93, his WHIP is an even better 0.87, and it took 12 starts for someone to beat him.
He is now 6-1 for the season and is a leading candidate to win the National League Rookie of the Year award when all is said and done.