Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes experienced what he described as the "sloppiest outing of the year" on Friday night, surrendering five runs on seven hits and a season-high four walks over four innings in the team's 8-7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young winner, struggled to find his rhythm from the start. "It took pretty much an inning to find my delivery, which happens. Usually it doesn’t look that bad in the first inning," Skenes said. "Just pretty sloppy all around."
This outing marks the second consecutive start where Skenes has allowed five earned runs, following a performance against the Chicago Cubs where he gave up five runs over 5 ⅓ innings. His earned run average for the season has now risen to 3.90, a notable increase from the sub-2.00 ERA he posted in each of his first two MLB campaigns.
Concerns about Skenes' performance have also been fueled by a decrease in his fastball velocity. His average four-seam fastball has dropped from 98.2 mph last year to 96.9 mph this season. While Skenes acknowledged that the month of July has been challenging, he maintained that prior to Friday's game, he felt he was pitching well despite the statistics.
"Up until today, I think I’ve viewed the past month or so as me throwing the ball pretty well even though it doesn’t look like it at all, really. The month as a whole I don’t think has been terrible. Today was pretty terrible," Skenes stated. He added, "It’s been an interesting year, a little bit. But, it could be a lot worse. We’ll figure it out. I’m going to figure it out. But it could be a lot worse."