Pirates' Paul Skenes tests limits with career high in pitches, innings in St. Louis series opener

With plenty of baseball remaining to be played this season, there’s already been considerable speculation about how the Pittsburgh Pirates are managing the workloads of their two prized assets: starting pitchers Paul Skenes and Jared Jones.

On April 16, when Jones was yanked in the midst of a one-hit, scoreless outing after only five innings and 59 pitches, questions regarding the Pirates’ pitch count philosophy intensified in both media and fan circles.

In a pregame radio segment on 93.7 FM on Tuesday, manager Derek Shelton shared some background about how the Pirates operate in that regard as well as the evolution of pitch counts in MLB over the years.

“When you’re talking about young pitchers, we don’t have all the answers,” Shelton said. “I know everybody gets fixated on the 100 (pitches) mark. That probably started 10-12 years ago. Then we got to the third time through the order. … I still think it’s an eye test. We’ve talked about it a lot this year. It’s not only an eye test, but it’s also the stress of the inning. There’s times where guys don’t have stressful innings, and you may be able to extend them a little more.”

#Pirates manager Derek Shelton explained the team's pitching philosophy to @JoeStarkey1, @PaulZeise, and @KDPomp, plus the importance of efficiency and what happened on the strange missed foul ball call.

Listen: https://t.co/1Lx5aiKZYv pic.twitter.com/ob3xSxsUC7

— 93.7 The Fan (@937theFan) June 11, 2024

As it turned out, Tuesday’s game in St. Louis against the Cardinals played into what Shelton alluded to as Skenes went on to post career highs in pitches (103) and innings (6 1/3) in the 2-1 Pirates win.

When Skenes got through six scoreless innings, having allowed four hits with seven strikeouts, Shelton opted to send the 22-year-old out to begin the seventh, even at 94 pitches.

Skenes struck out leadoff man Nolan Gorman, but following a Nolan Arenado double, his night came to an end. Skenes (3-0, 2.43 ERA) took a no decision.

Shelton said following the game that there was no negotiation on Skenes’ part that went into sticking with him but simply a matter of matchups.

The Pirates skipper was pleased with Skenes’ start.

“Overall, very impressed,” Shelton said. “We continue to see growth out of Paul.”

Key to Skenes’ longevity Tuesday were smooth early frames as he needed only 11, 12 and 15 pitches to get through the first, second and third.

“It was nice. I had no idea how many pitches I was at, just was focusing on executing,” Skenes said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “I know the first few innings were kind of quicker, and that allowed me to get a little bit deeper into the game. Especially in a game like that, just being able to pitch deeper into it was a lot of fun.”

Skenes previously had pitched six innings three times, with his former high in pitches coming May 17 at Chicago, when he threw 100.

Mixing up his pitch sequencing also contributed to keeping the Cardinals off balance.

In particular, Skenes flashed his curveball considerably more often than he has through five prior big-league starts.

Per Statcast, the curveball was tied with his changeup for Skenes’ most infrequently thrown pitch, coming in at only 3.9% of the time.

Before Tuesday, Skenes had been far more reliant on his triple-digit four-seamer, splinker hybrid and slider.

But in St. Louis, of his 103 pitches, 20 (19%) were curveballs.

Skenes doubtless is fully aware of the correlation between his ability to execute his full arsenal of pitches and getting deeper into games.

Leaning more on the curveball and continuing to experiment with his repertoire makes the chess match with hitters all the more enjoyable.

“A little bit of it is just learning how to pitch at this level and how hitters are reacting to my stuff,” Skenes said. “It’s cool, with each outing, to learn a little bit more about how hitters are looking at my stuff and attacking me. To be able to have more tools is a good thing. … It’s fun being able to sequence like that. Makes the game fun.”