Yesterday Paul Skenes one of the best pitching prospects of late made their Major League Baseball debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The good news for Skenes was that the Pirates offense seemed to come alive and gave him an early four run lead. Connor Joe hit a three-run home and Oneil Cruz followed up with a solo shot of his own off Chicago Cubs starter Justin Steele.

For Skenes, he showed flashes of brilliance as he struck out seven yet he gave up six hits, walked two, gave up a solo home run, while allowing three runs on 84 pitches in four plus innings of work. What made his debut memorable is what happened after the Pirates bullpen took over. After he was taken out of the game after giving up a lead off double and then a single, Kyle Nicolas came on in relief. Cody Bellinger and Christopher Morel both struck out before the wheels fell off. As Ian Happ then got hit by a pitch, and after there were consecutive walks with the bases loaded and a single that gave the Cubs an 8-6 lead. While all this was happening was a rain delay and on a side note there is an excellent picture of a double rainbow shared on social media as well.

Yet in the bottom half of the fifth inning, Yasmani Grandal who had been struggling since returning from the injured list, hit a three-run home run of his own to give the Pirates a 9-8 lead. In the bottom of the sixth Andrew McCutchen added a needed insurance run with a solo shot of his own.

Pirates closer David Bednar made things interesting in the ninth inning. As he allowed a leadoff double to Miles Mastobuoni, a single to Yan Gomes, Tauchman hit a sacrifice fly to bring Chicago within one.

Peter Crow-Armstrong then stole second base after pinch running for Gomes. Suzuki then grounded out and Bednar got Bellinger to line out to pick up his seventh save of the season.

As for Skenes even though he throws over 100 miles-per-hour, he will need to get more economical with his pitches and not rely so much on the strikeout. That has been the once concern for him even in Triple-A where even though he had a .99 ERA in seven starts, he only threw 27.1 innings.

Here are the information and reactions from Skenes debut on social media too.

 

 

 

 

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