Pirates ace Paul Skenes flirts with perfect game, continues dominant stretch since Opening Day disaster

Skenes took a perfect game into the seventh and is in rare air historically for a pitcher of his age

Pirates ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes continued the domination we've seen pretty much his entire career -- save for Opening Day this season -- Friday evening in a 6-0 win over the Brewers. In fact, he was perfect for a while. 

Skenes took a perfect game into the seventh inning and got two outs in the seventh before giving up a groundball single to Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers. 

It was certainly notable that Skenes was working on a perfect game before that. It always is, of course, but the Pirates have never had a perfect game. Harvey Haddix in 1959 famously had a perfect game going through 12 innings, but he lost it in the 13th and the Pirates ended up losing that game, 1-0. The last no-hitter for the Pirates was a combined effort in 1997. They haven't had an individual pitcher throw a no-hitter since John Candelaria did so on Aug. 9, 1976. 

It was not to be on this night, but Skenes was still amazing. 

The final line: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K. 

Remember, less than a month ago, on Opening Day, Skenes suffered through the worst start of his professional career and likely his entire life. He allowed five runs on four hits and two walks in ⅔ of an inning. This means he started out with a 67.50 ERA. He's already worked it down to 2.48 for the season. 

In Skenes' five starts since the Opening Day Disaster -- and Oneil Cruz's poor defense was partially a culprit there -- he's allowed only three runs on 10 hits with 29 strikeouts in 28 ⅓ innings. That's a 0.95 ERA since the blip on the radar that happened March 26 in New York. He's also worked 16 straight scoreless innings. He's done a lot of making opposing hitters look like this ...

That bad start is now safely in the rearview mirror and was obviously an outlier. The historic beginning to Skenes' career continues. He's now made 61 career starts and has a 2.01 ERA with 416 strikeouts in 349 ⅔ innings. He's already started the All-Star Game twice, won Rookie of the Year and won a Cy Young. He doesn't even turn 24 years old until May 29. 

How many pitchers have ever made at least 50 starts with an ERA of under 2.05 before turning 25 years old? Skenes is one of eight. The other seven all played during the Deadball Era or the 1800s. Skenes is the only pitcher since 1916 to have such a start to a career. 

Even better news for the fans from Pittsburgh? The Pirates appear to be a relevant team in 2026. The win on Friday moved them to 15-11 on the season. Skenes will next start against the Cardinals in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.