Paul Skenes Gets To NOT Be A Pirate, And Dominates For USA With 7 Strikeouts In 5-3 Win Over Mexico

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Former LSU pitcher Paul Skenes will be entering his third season with the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 26 after two seasons in which he was simply spectacular.

But the Pirates finished last in the National League Central at 71-91 in 2024 despite Skenes going 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA with 170 strikeouts in 133 innings, winning National Rookie of the Year, and starting the All-Star game.

In 2025, Pittsburgh finished last in the Central again at 76-86 and usually failing to give Skenes run support as he finished 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA and 216 strikeouts in 187 and two-thirds innings. He started the All-Star game again, and despite his .500 record, he won the National League Cy Young award as the league’s top pitcher.

Cy Skenes! Former LSU Great Paul Skenes Wins National League Top Pitcher Award

In his two All-Star starts, he struck out two with one walk and allowed no hits or runs over two innings. Other than those two games, Skenes has not been a part of significant baseball games since winning two games at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2023 and taking the MVP award for the national champion Tigers before becoming the first pick of the MLB Draft two weeks later.

But on Monday night at Daikin Park in Houston, Skenes got another taste of what big time Major League Baseball must feel like as he started for Team USA against Mexico in the World Baseball Classics.

And Skenes, as usual, delivered when the lights were at their brightest. In four and a third innings, he struck out seven while allowing no runs on one hit and one walk, leaving with a 5-0 lead – the kind of cushion he has rarely received with the Pirates. Team USA went on to beat Mexico, 5-3, for the first time in 20 years of World Baseball Classics play.

All seven Paul Skenes strikeouts from his dominant start against Mexico pic.twitter.com/jApnqSes0D

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 10, 2026

And the seven strikeouts? The most by any United States pitcher over the last three World Baseball Classics.

There are four more years left on Skenes’ contract with Pittsburgh, and trade talk that was frequent last year has died down.

“My goal is to win in Pittsburgh,” Skenes said last November.

That is a lofty goal at the moment. Pittsburgh’s last winning season was 82-79 in 2018. Its last playoff appearance was in 2015. They have had seven straight losing seasons and twice lost 100 or more in that span in 2021 and ’22.