{"id":645442,"date":"2026-03-26T23:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645442\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:10:18","slug":"pirates-ace-paul-skenes-chased-in-1st-inning-by-mets-on-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645442\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates ace Paul Skenes chased in 1st inning by Mets on opening day"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Paul Skenes thought he could get out of a jam in the first inning on opening day<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He never got the chance.<\/p>\n

After giving up five runs and getting only two outs Thursday in an 11-7 loss<\/a> at the New York Mets, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner got the hook from manager Don Kelly after throwing just 37 pitches. It was by far the shortest of his 56 major league starts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not as upset about this for me, personally, as people would probably think,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cBecause they did a really good job. It was an abnormal outing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old allowed four hits and issued two walks, including one to leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor. Skenes also hit a batter with a pitch, and Kelly wondered if the right-hander\u2019s fastball command wasn\u2019t up to his usual standards.<\/p>\n

The five runs Skenes allowed matched his career high. The two-time All-Star also gave up five in six innings on April 8, 2025, against St. Louis. <\/p>\n

Skenes said Kelly told him something along the lines of it\u2019s too early in the season to push it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to stay out there and pitch,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really tough thing going to get him in the first inning right there. The bottom of it is Paul\u2019s health. You\u2019re getting close to 40 pitches, yeah 37 pitches and Lindor had a seven-pitch at-bat that first at-bat. If he runs another 7-10, you\u2019re into dangerous territory with the starting pitcher in one inning, so we had to make the move.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not all on Skenes, who was hurt by shoddy defense from Oneil Cruz in center field. <\/p>\n

Handed a 2-0 lead on Brandon Lowe\u2019s<\/a> two-run homer, Skenes walked Lindor in the bottom of the first. Juan Soto followed with a soft single, and Bo Bichette lofted a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n

Jorge Polanco nubbed an infield single, and Skenes walked Luis Robert Jr. on 10 pitches. After pitching coach Bill Murphy visited the mound, Cruz misplayed Brett Baty\u2019s line drive into a bases-loaded triple, coming in a couple of steps before letting the ball sail over his head.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It) was one of those low line drives that it takes a little bit more time for me to read it, and they\u2019re really tough balls to read because you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to have to come in or go back,\u201d Cruz said through an interpreter. \u201cIt got in the sun a little bit at the end, but those are the ones that I will get better at, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus Semien then popped up to shallow center, but Cruz lost the ball in the sun and it dropped beside him for an RBI double that gave New York a 5-2 lead. Cruz is a converted shortstop who began playing center field in 2024 before becoming a full-time outfielder last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat ball straight at him, he came in, got a bad read,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe\u2019s been working hard out there. He just needs to continue to get better. Then the one in the sun. He just lost it in the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carson Benge struck out on three fastballs clocked 96-98 mph in his first big league plate appearance, but Skenes grazed No. 9 batter Francisco Alvarez with an 0-1 sinker and that was the end of his afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mets fans roared as Skenes walked slowly off the mound toward the dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt good, but (we were) being precautionary,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cThe pitch count wasn\u2019t going to be super, super high today anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skenes was coming off two starts for the U.S. at the World Baseball Classic. Kelly brushed off Skenes participating in that event as anything contributing to this outing.<\/p>\n

Yohan Ram\u00edrez relieved and prevented further damage by retiring Lindor on a flyball with runners at second and third. Ram\u00edrez was the first of six Pirates relievers.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously not ideal to have a bullpen game on opening day,\u201d Skenes said. <\/p>\n

Skenes made his second opening-day start as he begins his third major league season. He became the eighth starting pitcher since at least 1906 to allow five or more runs in less than an inning in a season opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to get it out of the way,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cJust flush it.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Paul Skenes thought he could get out of a jam in the first inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,56879,88,1751,358,5805,6452,1347,227,120,134,369,386,4,256,5786,1690,10217,61,1330,1727,877,3838,64,185],"class_list":["post-645442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-bill-murphy","tag-bo-bichette","tag-brandon-lowe","tag-brett-baty","tag-carson-benge","tag-don-kelly","tag-francisco-alvarez","tag-francisco-lindor","tag-jorge-polanco","tag-juan-soto","tag-luis-robert","tag-marcus-semien","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-oneil-cruz","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-paul-skenes","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116298006032256080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645442","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=645442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}