{"id":669752,"date":"2026-04-08T06:29:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669752\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:29:25","slug":"paul-skenes-sends-scary-warning-after-shutting-down-padres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669752\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Skenes sends ‘scary’ warning after shutting down Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates, off to a 7-4 start<\/a> to the 2026 MLB season, have a cheat code: every five days, they have a near-guaranteed win when Paul Skenes<\/a> takes the mound for them. Tuesday was Skenes night for the Pirates, and as expected, Pittsburgh brought home a convincing 7-1 victory over the San Diego Padres \u2014 with Skenes throwing 6.1 innings of one-run ball while allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out six.<\/p>\n

One might find this hard to believe, but that was Skenes’ best start of the new campaign thus far. He was rocked hard in his opening start<\/a> of the season, allowing five earned runs in 0.2 innings of work against the New York Mets and he entered proceedings on Tuesday with a 9.53 ERA in 5.2 innings of work on the season.<\/p>\n

This only suggests that the Pirates have plenty of room<\/a> to grow still, which Skenes is looking forward to.<\/p>\n

\u201cA long way to go. I\u2019m excited to see what it turns into. I don\u2019t even think we\u2019re playing our best baseball yet, which is scary to think about. It\u2019s gonna be a lot of fun,\u201d Skenes said after recording his second win of the season, per Jason Mackey of MLB.com.<\/p>\n

Is this the year the Pirates figure it out around Paul Skenes?\"PittsburghCharles LeClaire-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n

Skenes is clearly a generational pitching talent who’s been excellent through the first two seasons of his career. But his win-loss tally last season was rather telling; despite pitching 187.2 innings of 1.97 ERA ball in 2025 as a follow-up to his 1.96 ERA in his rookie campaign across 133.0 innings, he went just 10-10.<\/p>\n

Now, personal win-loss tally is not the be-all, end-all stat. But that was telling of how the Pirates have lacked in their roster-building around him. Nonetheless, this promising start to the 2026 season shows that there may be plenty of hope for Pittsburgh yet \u2014 even with their ownership’s longstanding penny-pinching ways.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Pirates, off to a 7-4 start to the 2026 MLB season, have a cheat code: every five days, they have a near-guaranteed win when Paul Skenes takes the mound for them. Tuesday was Skenes night for the Pirates, and as expected, Pittsburgh brought home a convincing 7-1 victory over the San Diego Padres \u2014 with Skenes throwing 6.<\/p>\n