On Tuesday evening, April 8, Pittsburgh Pirates' opening pitcher Paul Skenes took the mound at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite his aim to silence the Cardinals' hitters, St. Louis' batters proved resilient.
It was an unusual poor beginning for Skenes, with few spectators present in the stands. As the Pirates lost to the Cardinals 5-3, the ace pitcher addressed reporters following the match regarding the events. This isn't the first occasion where Skenes has faced difficulties playing against St. Louis.
Pirates' Rookie Paul Skenes Discusses Defeat Versus Cardinals
In the 5-3 defeat against St. Louis, Skenes faced difficulties, causing the Pirates' record to drop to 4-8 for the season as the Cardinals moved to 5-6. During this match, he allowed six hits along with five runs, issued one walk, and recorded seven strikeouts. The five runs conceded mark the highest number of runs Skenes has surrendered in an MLB game throughout his career thus far.
Following the match, the key pitcher addressed the press concerning their loss to St. Louis. said It’s nothing I’ll lose sleep over; it’s just a game.
A noteworthy aspect of Skenes' early Major League Baseball career is his record of 0-3 when facing the Cardinals. This particular struggle against the Cardinals might be somewhat unexpected, yet it isn’t entirely unprecedented.
“They just got to a couple of pitches. It’s not like they hit the ball into the river or anything like that. They just found some holes, and I got behind in some counts and kind of let them get good swings off, and they found holes,” Skenes said to the media after the loss.
At the start of the 2025 MLB season, over the first three games, the ace pitcher holds a 1-1 win-loss ratio along with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.44. He has faced 18.3 innings and allowed 12 hits alongside seven runs. Additionally, this player has issued three walks and recorded 20 strikeouts, maintaining a whip rate of 0.82.
“We haven’t seen a lot of rough ones,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, talking about Skenes’ rough outing against the Cardinals. “But everything that has been on his plate, he’s handled very well. I expect him to come out the next time and be what we expect.”
The next time that Skenes will pitch will most likely be against the Washington Nationals at home. It will be interesting to see how he responds after having a tough outing against the Cardinals.
