Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes made the MLB debut the entire baseball world was waiting for, taking on the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park on Saturday. The best pitching prospect in baseball was as advertised, showing electric stuff in his first MLB start.
Skenes, the first overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, was viewed as major-league-ready last year. However, after dominating on the mound for the LSU Tigers, the Pirates’ organization wanted to take a cautious approach with the future face of its starting rotation.
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Skenes opened the season with Triple-A Indianapolis, as Pittsburgh wanted to both limit his innings and gain the benefits of service-time manipulation. The 6-foot-6 righty’ pitch count was slowly built up, before the team announced he’d make his MLB debut at home against the Cubs on Saturday.
With Skenes’ girlfriend Livvy Dune in attendance at PNC Park, along with a raucous crowd, the Pirates’ starting pitcher brought the electric heat and swing-and-miss stuff that made him one of the top prospects in MLB.
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In addition to the famous splinker pitch that hit 95 mph, Skenes set the Pirates’ record for fastest strikeout by a Pirates’ starting pitcher since 2008. He also topped 100 mph 17 times on Saturday afternoon at PNC Park.
The Pirates pulled Skenes from the game after 84 pitches, 54 strikes, ensuring that they don’t put too much stress on the young hurler’s arm this early in his major-league career. While he exited with 2 runners on in the 5th inning, the crowd made sure to show its appreciation for his first start.
Not only did Skenes receive a standing ovation following his MLB debut, but the first start from the Pirates’ rookie also had some interesting parallels to Stephen Strasburg and even netted a comparison from an MLB legend.
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The hype surrounding Skenes’ MLB debut was eerily reminiscent of the excitement for when the Washington Nationals called up Stephen Strasburg for his debut. Nationals’ reporter Mark Zuckerman witnessed Strasburg’s MLB debut and pointed out an eerie coincidence. The first batter Strasburg faced was Andrew McCutchen, who is now Skenes’ teammate and was the Pirates’ leadoff hitter on Saturday.
It’s not the only similarity of note. Joey Votto tweeted that Skenes’ MLB debut reminded him of facing Strasburg after he was called up by the Nationals.
“Watching Skenes reminds me of facing Strasburg after his call-up. I took a fastball in my first at-bat, looked up, and saw ‘100’ on the board. I thought, ‘Uh oh.’ The next pitch? The best curveball I’d ever seen—gulp. Same could be said about the changeup later. This beautiful game keeps moving fwd.”
Joey Votto on Paul Skenes MLB debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates
While Skenes will certainly face ups-and-downs in his rookie season, his MLB debut went well and it’s only a sign of greater things to come.