Skenes Complete Game Still not Enough in Loss

S. Samek

The Pittsburgh Pirates were looking to avoid the sweep by in-state rival Philadelphia on Sunday May 18th, 2025. Lucky for them they had Paul Skenes on the mound.

Skenes was on a game yesterday. He pitched eight innings, allowed one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out nine hitters. This marks the first time he’s thrown a complete game in the majors. He threw 71 of his 102 pitches for strikes.

However, the Pirates offense didn’t support Skenes. They did outhit Philadelphia 6-3 and drew just one walk. They failed to plate a single run in a 1-0 loss.

This one just really stings. It’s so bad that even when Skenes is nearly perfect and dealing it’s still not enough to drag this team to a win. It just goes to show how truly horrible the offense has been this year for Pittsburgh.

Now the calls to trade Skenes and free him from Pittsburgh are out in full force. I’m not sure it needs to go that far just yet. As a Pirates fan I don’t want to see him leave just yet. However, something has to be done to get this guy some run support so future outings like this one aren’t wasted.

Hopefully he throws some more complete games, and this is the first of many. Just hope he can turn these losses into wins though.