{"id":632239,"date":"2026-03-19T19:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/632239\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:23:16","slug":"paul-skenes-named-pirates-2026-opening-day-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/632239\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Skenes named Pirates 2026 Opening Day starter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As if there was any doubt, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner will start the first game of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday that Paul Skenes will get the ball in New York to start Opening Day against the Mets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cDuh,\u201d the Pirates tweeted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Skenes tallied 1.97 ERA and struck out 216 batters in 187.2 innings, the most strikeouts but a Pirates starting pitcher in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Skenes only allowed 31 earned runs and totaled a 0.95 WHIP en route to his first Cy Young.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 2023 No. 1 overall pick and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year will make his second-career Opening Day start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Skenes, 23, posted a 7.7 WAR last year and started his second-consecutive All-Star Game for the NL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He continues to accumulate accolades rarely seen in over 100 years. Skenes started two games for the United States in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, allowing one run over 8.1 innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Facing potentially the greatest lineup he\u2019ll ever face against the Dominican Republic in the semifinals, Skenes allowed only one run in 4.1 frames. Outside of a Junior Caminero solo home run, Skenes silenced the Dominican Republic offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In 55 starts, Skenes owns a 21-13 record, 1.96 ERA, 386 strikeouts, 2.40 FIP, and a 0.948 WHIP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Skenes starts game one of 162 at Citi Field on Thursday, March 26 at 1:15 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if there was any doubt, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner will start the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,4,10,1141,776,64,4297],"class_list":["post-632239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pirates-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116257476143713347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}