Analyst Compares Paul Skenes To Two Most Dominant Pitchers In MLB History originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes was the talk of baseball on Wednesday after his latest masterpiece against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
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All Skenes did was strike out the first six batters he faced and take a no-hitter into the seventh inning, finishing with 10 punchouts over eight scoreless innings.
Skenes’ gem lowered his ERA to 1.98, right in line with his career 1.97 mark.
Not surprisingly, the reigning NL Cy Young winner received plenty of praise on Wednesday, including from his World Baseball Classic manager, Mark DeRosa.
“When I watch him right now, I’m watching what could potentially be one of the greatest right-handed pitchers of all time,” DeRosa said on MLB Network on Wednesday. “I really believe that in my heart. The process, the way he goes about it. He reminds me of Roger Clemens, he reminds me of Nolan Ryan. He gets after it, and nobody hits him.”
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That’s high praise considering Ryan and Clemens are arguably the two most dominant pitchers in MLB history. Ryan holds the MLB records for most no-hitters and career strikeouts, while Clemens has the record for most Cy Young awards.
DeRosa also noted that Skenes has the lowest ERA through the first 64 starts of his career of any pitcher in the live ball era, ahead of Doc Gooden, Orel Hershiser, Howie Pollet and Vida Blue.
Clemens and Ryan both pitched forever, so Skenes has a long way to go if he wants to come close to their career totals. But so far, at least, he’s well on his way.
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