Pitching in the major leagues cannot be as easy as Paul Skenes makes it look. The Pittsburgh rookie, one of the top prospects in baseball, threw a no-hitter for six innings in Chicago on Friday before the Pirates' bullpen took over. That was the end of the no-hitter, but Skenes still collected his first victory in Major League Baseball, in his second start; the Pirates won 9-3. His performance was stellar in these ways:
- Strikeouts: Skenes fanned 11 Cubs, which no Pirates starting pitcher had done in the 1,016 games that Pittsburgh had played at Wrigley Field before Friday, per MLB. The 21-year-old struck out the first seven batters he faced, a team record that was one shy of the baseball record, per CBS Sports.
- On the radar: 12 of the 100 pitches Skenes threw were clocked at 100mph or faster, per ESPN. No. 99 was clocked at 99mph, and No. 100 came in at 100.
- Control: Of those 100 pitches, 67 were strikes. Skenes walked one batter.
- A first: No other pitcher in MLB history in one of his first two career starts, per Yahoo Sports, has no-hit his opponents for at least six innings while striking out more than 10 batters.
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