Paul Skenes and the quest for the 100th pitch

The Pirates' rookie and All-Star starter could have had two no-hitters by now, if his club wasn't so illogically protective.

Paul Skenes will start the All-Star Game for the National League Tuesday, barely a year after he was helping LSU win the College World Series. For one of the few times in his nascent career, nobody will complain when Skenes leaves that mound.

The diminishing number of baseball fans who prize history have been waiting for somebody like Skenes, who is 6-foot-6, weighs 235 and spreads fright and precision. He throws a 98 to 100 mph four-seam fastball, a 94 mph sinker, and he is 6-0 for the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first 10 starts.

But those curators of the game have almost destroyed their microfiche machines in the frustration of watching Skenes hand over the baseball. against his will.

In the old days, when the pursuit of a no-hitter superseded all else, Skenes might already have two. He was removed on May 17 in Chicago, after he had fanned the first six Cubs he faced and was leading 8-0 after six. That was considered OK, in these times, because Skenes had thrown only 100 pitches.

But on July 11, he went seven innings against Milwaukee, gave up no hits with a walk and 11 strikeouts, and still got the hook. The Pirates were only leading, 1-0, and, fortunately for manager Derek Shelton, won by the same score. But Skenes had improved his efficiency, needing only 99 pitches. He had retired 16 consecutive batters. He had needed only seven pitches to get through the sixth, and only six to negotiate the seventh. It didn’t matter. Shelton said Skenes looked “tired,” so it was time to dip him in preservatives for the next four days. Skenes said all the right things; of course he doesn’t like to leave any game, but he understands the big picture. But it was bad. Sure, it showed no sensitivity toward baseball’s romance, but Shelton isn’t paid to generate stories. The problem is the theory, which is flawed. If it makes sense to ration the talents of starting pitchers in an effort to protect their health, then why do they keep getting hurt?

The Dodgers have eight pitchers on the 60-day injured list with arm injuries. The Angels have six. Everybody but Toronto has at least one. All clubs have treated their pitching prospects like fragile souffles, but not many of them actually get to the table. Of the 51 pitchers who have reached 100 innings this season, nineteen of them are 30 or older. Only Hunter Greene of the Reds and Reese Olson of the Tigers are under 25.

In the National League, where Skenes lives, eleven pitchers average six innings per start. Aaron Nola of Philadelphia is the leader at 6.3. Greene is the only N.L. starter to average over 100 pitches per start, and he, San Francisco’s Logan Webb, San Diego’s Dylan Cease, Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler and Atlanta’s Max Fried and Chris Sale are the only ones who have nine games of 100 pitches or more.

Now, everybody knows Bob Gibson doesn’t live here any more, and every generation thinks the current one is soft. Cy Young probably said World War I-era pitchers were wimps when they didn’t turn in 400 innings a year. It’s always prudent to safeguard a starter’s arm. But that doesn’t mean you should hide it, especially when it houses such genius. Only two pitchers, Wilson Alvarez and Clay Buchholz, have thrown no-hitters in their second major league start. Skenes could have equaled that. Hey, it’s the Pirates. Since Gerrit Cole left town, how many times have they mattered?

Skenes might have more operating capacity than most pitchers. Until he left Air Force, he was a catcher and a pitcher, winning the John Olerud Award for two-way excellence in his sophomore year. He played all over the diamond when he was at El Toro, Ca., at the same high school Nolan Arenado and Matt Chapman attended. Last year, at LSU, was Skenes’ first as a fulltime pitcher, and he became the first-overall pick in the MLB draft.

Someone owes an apology to Preston Gomez. He was one of the great baseball lifers of his time, but he is still associated with two no-hitters that he prevented when he was managing San Diego and Hosuton. In 1970, he pinch-hit for Clay Kirby against the Mets, who had gotten no hits in eight innings but were leading, 1-0. Cito Gaston was the pinch-hitter and was retired, as were the Padres.

In 1974, Gomez was managing the Astros. Don Wilson already had two no-hitters in his bag. Now he was going for a third. At the time, Sandy Koufax was the only pitcher who had four. Houston was playing Cincinnati, which took a 2-1 lead on errors. When the eighth came around, Wilson was supposed to lead off. Instead, Tommy Helms pinch-hit for him and grounded out. Houston lost, Gomez was roasted again, and Wilson, who had 103 wins at the time, would win only once more. He died in January of 1975.

No-hitters used to trigger big, bright headlines across every sports page of America. The legend of the Angels’ Bo Belinsky began with his no-hitter in 1962 in his fourth alltime start, the first in club history. Part of Koufax’s charisma was the promise that he could string zeroes across the linescore at any time. Nolan Ryan wound up with seven no-hitters, a record that seems inaccessible. And there’s no question that no-hitters continue to excite major league dugouts. Players still avoid the no-hit pitchers like the plague, to keep the spell unbroken. Some announcers still refuse to mention the feat until it happens or is broken.

More than anything, the irrelevance of the no-hitter takes another hunk out of a starting pitcher’s impact. And that hurts the game because a great starter changes so many aspects. As Justin Verlander has pointed out, a starter is as much of an MVP candidate as a position player because his batters-faced stat is often larger than a hitter’s plate-appearance number. In the postseason, the true ace can dictate the strategy of both teams, as Madison Bumgarner demonstrated for the Giants in 2014.

The promise of Paul Skenes’ future is the most fascinating thought in baseball right now, if his team will only let him explore it. When he has 99 pitches, another pitch shouldn’t be a problem.