Pittsburgh Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes had a no-hitter going through seven innings in his 11th career major league game Thursday, but manager Derek Shelton pulled the plug on Skenes’ bid between innings.
The Milwaukee Brewers broke up the bid for a combined no-hitter in the bottom of the eighth. Colin Holderman relieved Skenes and Jake Bauers hit a single on the second pitch of the inning. Pittsburgh still hung on to win 1-0.
Asked how tough a choice it was to pull Skenes after seven frames and 99 pitches, Pirates manager Derek Shelton replied, “Not at all.”
“He was tired. It really didn’t have anything to do with the pitch count. Everybody makes it about pitch counts. It was about where he was at. It was about trusting your eyes, trusting him.”
Skenes used just six pitches to retire the side in the seventh inning, inducing two groundouts and a flyout. He appeared upset when cameras caught Shelton speaking with him in the dugout before the eighth inning.
“They did a good job of wearing him down and, I mean, he gave us everything he had,” Shelton said.
For his part, Skenes said in a postgame interview on MLB Network that he wasn’t surprised at being pulled from the game.
“Obviously in a 1-0 game you want to stay in there, you want to finish it, but the volume’s getting up there a little bit so I get it,” Skenes said, a point he reiterated to reporters in the locker room.
Skenes (6-0) walked one and hit a batter while striking out 11. He threw 65 of his 99 pitches for strikes.
It wasn’t even the first time the 2023 first overall draft pick left a no-hitter in progress this year. In his second career MLB start May 17 at the Chicago Cubs, he put up a strikingly similar line — no hits, one walk and 11 strikeouts — through six innings and 100 pitches.
The Pirates haven’t recorded a no-hitter since July 12, 1997, when Francisco Cordova pitched nine innings and Ricardo Rincon went one in a 10-inning, 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros.
Pittsburgh scored the game’s only run when Yasmani Grandal ripped an RBI double in the seventh.
