DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The great Paul Skenes

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The great Paul Skenes

[Music] [Applause] It’s one of one. That was Oscar Marine’s assessment. The season that Paul Ke just had. And yes, it’s now in the past tense. One of one. Good morning to you. Good Thursday morning. I’m Dan Kachovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into football andor hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins that I hope you’ll also check out. Pirates four, Reds three in 10 innings in Cincinnati. The result meant a lot to the people who crammed Great American Ballpark and were cheering their lungs out to try to get their team into the National League playoffs. But it didn’t matter anywhere near as much from this perspective than Skin finishing strong. And you know what? He tends not to disappoint. six scoreless innings going head-to-head with Hunter Green who’d also pitched six innings but gave up a couple of runs and five hits. Ski struck out seven, walked none, gave up four hits. You know how these lines go and he’d finish with a sit down for it 1.97 er a 1.97. Do your baseball soul some good today, my friends, and release the Bob Nutting and the sell the team and the fire the GM and the team being 69 and 89. One day, one day allow it to marinate. Marinate, I think, is a good word. That’s what they do with steak, right? Marinate. that this extraordinary young man just finished the greatest pitched season in the history, the 144year history of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club. That’s not a stretch on my part. That’s certainly not hype given where the team is overall right now. It’s ice cold rockhard statistical fact. A 1.97 erra I will say for the third time 0.95 whip 199 opponent’s batting average against it’s like every hitter he faces might as well have been acquired and developed by Ben Cherington. 187 and two/3 innings, 216 strikeouts. That, by the way, became a franchise record in this game against 42 walks. The only other two seasons that anyone from the Pirates had a sub two erra, Wilbur Cooper way back in 1916 at 1.87 and Babe Adams way back in 1919 at 1.98. He’s the fourth pitcher in major league history in what’s called the live ball era. That means anything after 1920, which eliminated those other two pirates. To have an erra this low in his age 23 season. Doc Gooden did that in 1985. Vitablau in 1971. Dean Chance in 1964. I could do this stuff all day. Jose Negron, our beat writer at DK Pittsburgh Sports, is on the scene at Cincinnati. He typed up a remarkable, intensely researched report with the help of Eric Bowser on our staff that you have to go and read today. It has tremendous detail feedback from people in the clubhouse at all levels. Jose also was there to speak with skins who spent most of his session on the whole sub 2 erra thing. though, as you’ll hear in this clip, he hadn’t exactly had the whole thing worked out mathematically. Uh, no. I mean, you got to throw zeros to finish with a sub two. So, I knew it was a possibility. I didn’t, you know, do the math or anything um in my head, but um yeah, just really just biggest thing wanted to, you know, savor it. Um, you know, knowing that this was my last outing of the year cuz, you know, so I won’t be doing it again for 6 months or so. Uh it’s kind of a tough realization. Past few days have been pretty tough for me uh knowing that. So um nice to have it over with. Um wish, you know, wish I could keep pitching um just for the joy of pitching. Um and and you know, the sub 2 is, you know, kind of a nice little um byproduct of it. goes. One of many tremendous tendencies about skins in his interviews is that no matter what you ask him, and he’ll answer it directly, he’s not a BSER in any way, he’ll end up boomeranging back somehow to the subject of winning. And unlike whatever the current management team thinks winning is all about, he, as you could hear there, very clearly thinks it’s about what he was witnessing last night from that mound. Meaning the other guys, meaning just that they were in it. They were participating in a meaningful game with the possibility of moving forward. That’s who he is. He spoke of Dennis Santana being out there on the mound and wrapping up what had been a really dramatic ninth and tth innings. The crowd figuratively breathing down his neck, red legs all over the bases, blown lead in the ninth. A lot of things you have to fight off. You could tell he’s wishing it was him, just like he casually stranded the dude at third earlier on with a bunch of sickening sweepers. How this pitch is not his premier pitch tells you everything you need to know about who he is. Thing was unhitable. Everybody just had to go and sit down. It didn’t matter that there was somebody on third. One day, just give it one day. He’s here now. Live in the present. You can do this. He’s worth it. When we come back, J1Q. If you’re looking for a great dining experience, look no further than Northshore Tavern. Located directly across Federal Street from PNC Park, next door to Mike’s Beer Bar, Northshore Tavern is Pittsburgh’s home for Steak on a stone. Enjoy your steak finished on a hot lava stone in front of you, where you ensure each piece is cooked to exactly your liking. or try their rotating selection of entre, hot sandwiches, salads, and burgers, all while enjoying the ambiance dedicated to the great players and history of the Pittsburgh Pirates all around you. Come see why everyone’s talking about Northshore Tavern and Steak on a Stone. It’s Gun Storage Check Week. Help prevent unwanted access to your firearms. No one wants their unsecured gun to be used in an accident, a suicide, or a crime. Use lock boxes, safes, and locks to secure your firearms. Learn more at gunstoch checkck.org. That’s gunstorage check.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the firearm industry trade association. Delete Me, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, data brokers can compile your name, contact info, social security number, home address, even information about your family members, and they can sell it online. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft or harassment or doxing? If you haven’t, you probably know someone who has. Delete Me can help take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Our listeners get a special discount today. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan by texting hit to6400. The only way to get 20% off is to text hit to 64,000. That’s hit to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. Hey guys, if you’re planning to see a Pirates game, use the Game Time app to get your tickets. You can snag new ticket deals before anyone if you set it into app alerts. The app is easy to use. No surprise fees at checkout. You can see your seat view before buying. And you’re getting legit tickets delivered on time. Now, if you’re not much of a planner, you can get lastminute deals on tickets right up to the start of the event. Lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Download the Game Time app and enter the code DK Pirates in your app profile for $20 off your first purchase. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Paul, who says, “DK, thoughts on Spencer Horwitz? Can he be a contributing part of the 2026 squad?” Well, yeah. And barring a trade, he’s going to be that. And I obviously can’t forecast what a new general manager is going to do. He might want nothing to do with a first baseman who has such limited power. But if you were referring to Horitz’s contract status, boy, the Pirates have his rights for another handful of years here. And what that means at the beginning is that everything you just saw him do, whether you liked it or not, whether you were satisfied with it or not, he just did at minimum wage and he would do so again the next 2 years. But yeah, I’m on to you, Paul. I I I see that you put this up as a J1Q possibility on our app within minutes of Horwitz producing his third hit. He went three for five with three RBI’s. Each of his three hits produced one run, which makes it feel a whole lot more clutchy, you know, than if he had all three of those RBI’s on a single swing for the season. He’s now batting 262, has a 341 on base percentage, a 749 OPS, and and I’m going to say it again, that sounds like, yeah, that’s pretty cool. I’ll take that. But you’re going to have to understand that the power is not going to be there. He’s got nine home runs and 25 doubles. Remember, that’s part of power, too. In 399 plate appearances, he’s also got the recurring wrist issue. I say recurring not because I’m expecting it to happen again tomorrow, but because it’s happened multiple times in the past, and it’s what kept him from starting this season on time. He also can’t hit lefties here. Again, I’m not saying something skeptical or cynical. I’m just pointing to a fact. Pirates don’t even want him facing lefties. He’s had 42 total at bats against lefties this season and is batting 167 against them if you’re curious. So, there’s a whole lot of asterisks with this player. I should in fairness point out that he’s been a nice fielder. he can play first base, but whatever the next GM has to do as it relates to first base, it’s got to be addressing, I think, the things that Horwitz isn’t. Meaning, it’s got to be somebody who’s right-handed, has power, can still get the job done defensively, doesn’t have to be a gold glover. But the roster as a whole, and we’re going to be talking a lot about this over the winter, needs to add actual home runs, not hoped for home runs, but ones that you can pretty much stick into the bank while you’re still in Bradenton that you just know they’re going to come. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. And we’ll be back with one of these tomorrow leading into the final series of the season, A Weekend in Atlanta. [Music]

The truly, legitimately, verifiably great Paul Skenes.

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