Pittsburgh Review

HOUSTON -- As Paul Skenes continues to develop from a young phenom to a Major League star, he is inevitably making history along the way. On Monday at Minute Maid Park, Skenes struck out his 100th Major League batter when Jon Singleton missed a second-inning changeup.

Achieving this milestone quickly, Skenes took just 13 games to reach the century mark, becoming the sixth pitcher in the Modern Era to do so. The others are Hideo Nomo (June 29, 1995), Herb Score (June 9, 1955), Kerry Wood (June 15, 1998) – all of whom accomplished the feat in 12 games – and Jose DeLeon (September 21, 1983) and Masahiro Tanaka (June 11, 2014).

Skenes was unaware of this achievement before the game. He only found out during the postgame interview with reporters. "It's pretty cool,” Skenes said. “That's where the game is now. Starting pitchers get rewarded. That's the goal to get a lot of swing and miss."

Pirates manager Derek Shelton commented on Skenes' performance: “I think it just speaks to how good his stuff is.”

Skenes’ six innings of two-run ball contributed significantly to the Pirates’ 5-3 win over the Astros on Monday. His pitch selection for strikeout No. 100 was notable as he had not previously struck out a batter with his changeup in his career up until Singleton.

Skenes also relied more on his slider during his outing, throwing it 28 times in his total of 101 pitches despite feeling it wasn’t executed well. "I thought it was terrible,” Skenes said. “I wasn't executing them and frankly got lucky." When asked why he continued using it, he replied with a grin, “I was trying to find it.”

However, this historic night did end another streak for Skenes; he had struck out at least seven batters in nine consecutive starts entering Monday's game—a record tied with Dwight Gooden (1984) and Brandon Beachy (2011) for rookies—which ended as he struck out only six.

“There were a lot of opportunities that I missed there,” Skenes remarked. “A couple two-strike hits, I think. I had a few strikeouts, but I could've had more."

Despite these challenges, Skenes’ start played an essential role in securing the Pirates' win amid their current Wild Card standings battle. His only runs allowed came after Ke’Bryan Hayes couldn’t handle a bad hop that turned into two runs instead of an inning-ending double play.

“They made him work,” Shelton noted about Skenes’ effort against a strong lineup. “This is a veteran lineup with some really good hitters... He did a nice job... overall he just continues to impress.”

As for future milestones? The expectation is that there will be many more for Paul Skenes.