Even the best in the game can't beat the mighty Coors Field. Paul Skenes was rocked (for his standards) by the Rockies on Saturday, going 5.0 innings and giving up four earned runs, two walks and one home run. After a wholly dominant July, Skenes' rough outing on Saturday raises his season ERA to... 2.02. Abysmal!
Unfortunately, the key to beating Paul Skenes appears to be... just make him play at the most hitter-friendly park in baseball. Considering that 28 MLB teams don't have that luxury, today might not be a great example for how to get to Skenes whenever a team faces him. I suppose making a pitcher play at Coors is the key to beating all pitchers, but the point stands.
Paul Skenes has rare off-day at Coors Field
I'm not going to put too much stock in Skenes' average outing, especially less than 24 hours after these two teams played a 17-16 game at the same ballpark. When you compare how Skenes looked to how all the other Pirates pitchers looked last night, it doesn't feel as bad!
It also feels completely fine when you look at how Skenes faired in July; nearly untouchable. He posted an ERA of 0.67 over 27 innings, striking out 36 and walking just three batters.
Pittsburgh (frustratingly, but understandably) didn't let Skenes go deep too often in July, and he never threw over 100 pitches in a game during the month. In fact, he hasn't thrown over 100 pitches in a game since June 19th against the Tigers.
We all want to watch the best pitchers pitch. But when a team is finding new, exciting ways to lose seemingly every week, it's not worth letting Skenes go out there and throw his arm dead in meaningless midseason baseball.