Baseball Fans Up In Arms As Pirates Pitcher Paul Skenes Gets Yanked After 7 No-Hit Innings

Matt Fitzgerald·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Paul Skenes
MLB

Maybe next time Livvy Dunne should conspire to take over or disconnect the bullpen phone for her beau Paul Skenes. The Pittsburgh Pirates rookie is the singular reason a lot of us baseball casuals are even paying a slight amount of attention to regular-season MLB action amid the dog days of summer.

Fresh off being named a National League All-Star as a mere rookie, Skenes took the hill on Thursday and blanked the Milwaukee Brewers through seven no-hit innings and 11 strikeouts. He’d thrown 99 pitches on the afternoon, prompting Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton to pull him from the game.

Back in the day Shelton would be investigated by HUAC for this call. You have the chance for your prodigious, franchise-carrying, immediate ace to go into the record books forever with a no-hitter. And you…don’t let him go back out for the eighth inning?

I get that you need to keep the big picture in mind for Skenes, but does this look like the countenance of somebody who was ready to ride the pine?

Making matters worse, the Pirates immediately lost their no-hit bid when Skenes left the mound. That’s real. The second pitch from Colin Holderman resulted in a base hit. PS, how improbable is it that a man whose last name is Holderman winds up playing Major League Baseball, where his surname matches his specialized job description? Astronomical.

Although the Pirates secured the 1-0 victory thanks to Holderman’s hold and Aroldis Chapman slamming the door for the save in the ninth,

Most of MLB Twitter empathized with Skenes’ situation, making the very reasonable assumption that he wanted to try to get through all nine innings.

The Moneyball-inspired rise of analytics, sabermetrics, and whatever other nerdy math term you want to throw out there are all indeed to blame for Skenes getting the early hook.

When Skenes got pulled through six no-hit innings against the Cubs in only his second start, that made a little more sense. He’d thrown 100 pitches and it was a full inning sooner. The way he was rolling on Thursday, it’s a real shame Skenes didn’t get the chance to play it out. He’d only walked one batter, just like that aforementioned gem versus the Cubbies.

Enjoy the highlights below, accompanied by some sophisticated stats that underscore how much the data should’ve tipped off Shelton to keep Skenes going. The 22-year-old is simply a machine of a man on the mound. Immediate megastar.

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