A worrisome trend has some Pittsburgh Pirates fans beginning to worry about Paul Skenes.
Skenes looked nothing like a reigning NL Cy Young winner in his latest start Friday against the Cincinnati Reds. He was removed from the mound at exactly 100 pitches through just four innings of work at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in an 8-7 loss, raising his ERA to a pedestrian 3.90 across 23 starts this season.
The 24-year-old failed to throw a single pitch that read 98 mph on the radar gun — the latest data point on a troubling new trend. According to Codify Baseball, Skenes has not thrown 98+ mph in each of his first four starts. Such pitches have become a rarity for him over the past several months.
98+ MPH pitches thrown by Paul Skenes in each of his 78 career big league starts:
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 1, 2026
32, 38 34, 30, 46, 42, 32, 33, 21, 32, 21, 44, 22, 23, 14, 24, 30, 33, 40, 35, 31, 21, 11, 19, 26, 12, 29, 21, 25, 10, 22, 17, 26, 35, 27, 35, 29, 34, 29, 32, 40, 28, 30, 30, 25, 49, 35, 26, 27,…
In the 48 career starts in which Skenes has averaged 98+ mph on his four-seam fastball, his ERA has been a stellar 1.73. In the 30 starts in which it dipped below that benchmark, his ERA rose to 3.83.
Skenes has thrown just 95 pitches for 98+ mph throughout this entire season. During his rookie campaign, he exceeded that total with 104 such pitches just three games into his MLB career.
There could very well be some mechanical or health issue affecting Skenes this season, given the stark contrast in velocity and overall effectiveness. Until the Pirates figure that out, Pirates fans and Livvy Dunne may need to endure more poor outings from her longtime boyfriend.
