Paul Skenes Enjoys An Brief But Impressive Yankee Stadium Debut And Looks Forward To 2025

Two months into his career, Paul Skenes faced Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in the festive midsummer exhibition game known as the All-Star game under the air conditioned dome settings of the home ballpark of the Texas Rangers.

When he walked Soto and retired Judge on a forceout, Skenes was 11 starts and 66 1/3 innings into his career. Two-plus months later, Skenes was on the mound at rainy Yankee Stadium as the main source of intrigue in the penultimate game of the regular season.

And on the docket were six encounters with the Yankees in a pre-determined plan but the brief glimpse of Skenes in the spotlight of Yankee Stadium was downright impressive on the fifth college Saturday of the year.

With girlfriend and gymnast Livvy Dunne cheering him on from the stands, Skenes threw four pitches at least 100 mph, giving him exactly 100 such pitches on the season. To put it in context Jose Soriano of the Angels is second with 40 and has not pitched since mid-August with right arm fatigue.

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The two inning plan was part of a gradual winding down process for Skenes, whose penultimate of his 23 starts in 133 innings was a five-inning appearance last weekend.

The first out was a weak groundout to rookie Jasson Dominguez another touted rookie in the news this week for misplaying a fly ball as a novice left fielder.

Then came a 99.8 mph fastball on the high, outside corner that Soto took for a called third strike. Judge struck out swinging at an outside sweeper as he attempted to elevate the ball, which seems extremely tough against Skenes, who allowed 10 homers to the 514 hitters he faced and none since Seattle’s Luke Raley connected in the fourth inning on Aug. 16.

Then he finished it with a flourish, locating a 99.6 mph fastball on the inside corner to Jazz Chisholm Jr, who said Friday he could not wait to face Skenes.

“Definitely glad to be able to finish the season and be able to do it here,” Skenes said. “Cool to do it against this lineup. So (I) wish I could keep going, but that's where we're at."

The last part of that statement pertains to the limits set upon Skenes like many young pitchers. He joined the Pirates on May 11 after throwing 27 1/3 innings in the minor and finished his second pro season with 160 1/3 innings after throwing six innings following his selection as the top overall pick in 2023 out of LSU.

“To have a sub-two ERA in his first year, especially in today's era, that's pretty special,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I think we're seeing a guy that's really elite, has the ability to make pitches and has room for growth. I think that's really fun for Pirates fans, if that's the case."

Skenes finished the lowest ERA in a rookie season of at least 20 starts since Reb Russell threw 316 2/3 innings in 52 appearances (36 starts) and produced 26 complete games for the 1913 Chicago White Sox. Russell was done pitching by 1919 due to ineffectiveness perhaps caused by the extensive workload and the Pirates are trying to avoid the same thing from happening to the prized pitcher.

“We didn’t know if it was going to be perfect,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I don’t think anybody did and I realize people are going to be critical because they wanted to see him. “We wanted to make sure we ramped him up. Even today, we wanted to make sure that he finished the season strong, that he finished the season on the mound.”

On the mound is the key part, though Skenes is hoping for more than pitching the penultimate game of a team who fell out of contention in August and will finish with another losing record.

He arrived to New York Thursday on the same night the Yankees secured the AL East title and is looking forward to a full season without limits along with a better season for the Pirates.

“We got right to where the innings threshold was,” Skenes said. “So frustrating first couple of months, but glad to be able to do what I did this year."

After getting consideration and possibly winning the Rookie of the Year, Skenes had a succinct answer to what the sophomore season would look like not only for him but for a team with four winning seasons and eight postseason games since Barry Bonds’ final season in 1992.

"Win a lot of baseball games,” Skenes said. "