Justin Steele pitches in the Steel City as the Cubs face the Pirates, Paul Skenes making his major league debut. Steele allowed six hits and two walks in his first two starts covering 9 1/3 innings, leading to just one run. You can’t swing a dead cat without running into a story about Skenes potential greatness. At seasonal age 22, Skenes gets called up after 34 minor league innings in which he posted a 2.12 ERA. 27 1/3 of those innings coming at AAA. If we focus on AAA, he struck out 45 batters, walked eight, and allowed just one home run. Batters managed 17 hits against him.
A big caveat in my opinion is that Skenes was not allowed to go deep in games. He made seven starts at triple A, averaging not quite four inning per start. So he never got the chance to tire in a game. The Pirates addressed this in the ESPN article:
“We’d rather have the majority of the volume available to him be in the major leagues and not the minor leagues,” Cherington said. “Managing the volume progression early so it’s building more slowly than an established major league starter’s would, but in a way where we’re not using an unnecessary number of innings in the minor leagues.”
ESPN.com
This is the most anticipated debut since Stephen Strasburg made his first start against the Pirates 14 years ago.
Undefeated pitchers battle in Detroit as Cristian Javier of the Astros takes on Tarik Skubal of the Tigers. Javier stands 2-0 in four starts with a 1.54 ERA. His Ks are low and his walks high, but he avoided base hits with just 15 allowed in 23 1/3 innings. Skubal is also tough to hit, but blows away batters with few walks, helping him to a 1.90 ERA. Different methods, similar results.
The Royals battle in the heat of an excellent AL Central race as they send Cole Ragans against the Angels and Tyler Anderson. Ragans’ ERA improved just a little despite better rates in all three-true outcomes. That suggests a bit of bad luck, so look for his ERA to come down a bit if he can keep that up. Anderson is way at the opposite end of the spectrum, with an ERA two runs below his FIP.
Enjoy!
