After a Disastrous Opening Day, Paul Skenes Has Been Lights Out

Pittsburgh Pirates righthander Paul Skenes was the National League Cy Young Award winner in 2025, but his 2026 season didn’t start out so well. On Opening Day, Skenes had one of those days that even great pitchers have from time to time. He gave up five earned runs in just 2/3 of an inning in a loss to the New York Mets.

Since then, he’s only lost once in eight starts. On April 30th, Skenes allowed three earned runs in five innings in a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The rest of the time, he allowed no runs in four of his starts and just one run in three others. In each of his last two outings, he’s thrown eight innings and allowed just two hits, no runs, and no walks while striking out seven on May 6th at Arizona and a season high 10 strikeouts on May 12th at home versus Colorado. The win over Colorado was his sixth win against two loses on the season. His ERA, which was at 67.5 on opening day, is down to 1.98. Last season, his ERA was 1.97, and in his rookie year of 2024, it was 1.96. Pretty consistent, and awfully good; in 370 2/3 innings pitched in his career his ERA is 1.97.