The chess match between Pittsburgh Pirates starter Paul Skenes and Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani lived up to expectations Wednesday night at PNC Park. Ohtani hit a two-run homer and managed a single off Skenes in the Pirates’ eventual 10-6 win, but Skenes fanned Ohtani in the top of the first inning on three fastballs all over 100 mph. Triple-digit heaters are Skenes’ bread and butter, but he did not deliver the fastest pitch of the evening. That distinction belonged to reliever Aroldis Chapman, who threw two sinkers in the seventh inning to Teoscar Hernandez that clocked 104 mph on the radar gun, making them the fastest pitches thrown in baseball this year. Aroldis Chapman just threw two 104 MPH sinkers back-to-back 104.0 MPH 103.8 MPH He's 36 pic.twitter.com/LvPCEDOP2T — Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 6, 2024 Since the Statcast Era began in 2008, they are the fastest pitches clocked by a Pirates pitcher. Previously, Bethel Park native and Oakland Athletics reliever Mason Miller owned the fastest pitch thrown this year, hitting 103.7 mph on April 11. Chapman, who has thrown 67 pitches of at least 104 mph in his 15-year career, was nonchalant about doing so following the game. "I just felt good with my fastball tonight,” the 36-year-old Chapman said through Pirates assistant coach and interpreter Stephen Morales. "That’s what I did, just throw my fastball.” • 7-run inning propels Pirates, Paul Skenes to series win over Dodgers • Pirates' Paul Skenes, Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani trade highlights in much-anticipated showdown • Tim Benz: 80 years after D-Day, remembering baseball's connection to World War II Chapman also chuckled when asked if Skenes and Jared Jones throwing 100 mph-plus regularly is something that fires him up and motivates him to pitch even harder. "That time is in the past,” he said. "Those are old times. I’m just in a good spot, healthy and trying to do my job. Not trying to do that. It’s way behind me.” While Chapman may have shrugged off hitting such high velocities, both now and over the course of his career, his teammates were in awe. "It’s an honor, frankly, to play on the same team as him with what he’s accomplished in this game,” Skenes said. "It’s always so cool to watch.” Designated hitter Andrew McCutchen and Chapman have a well-documented history. Before this season brought the two together as teammates, they broke into the MLB a year apart and were major adversaries when McCutchen was in his first stint with the Pirates and Chapman came up with the Cincinnati Reds. So McCutchen knows a thing or two about facing Chapman’s heaters. Andrew McCutchen and Aroldis Chapman are now teammates pic.twitter.com/f0cJk0OSam — Austin Bechtold (@AustinRBechtold) January 23, 2024 McCutchen no longer has to face Chapman, and he is perfectly content to enjoy the view from the dugout as opposing batters try to make contact with his ultra-fast stuff. "He wasn’t just throwing 104. He was throwing 104 (mph) sinkers,” McCutchen said. "It’s not 104 (mph) four-seamers. It’s literally less RPM and still throwing the ball that hard. It’s impressive, man, and that at-bat against Teoscar, throwing the splitter how he did to end the at-bat, that’s just not fair as a hitter when he’s doing that and doing something he’s done for a very long time in his career. "For him to be able to continue to be able to do that, it speaks volumes about the player that he is and, honestly, the unicorn that he is. You don’t see that. You don’t see that from a guy who’s been able to do that as long as he has, at (36) years old, still reaching back and throwing 104. You don’t see it.” While he allowed a run before exiting the game, Chapman also struck out Ohtani in the seventh with an 103 mph sinker. 103mph from Aroldis Chapman to strikeout Shohei Ohtani ???? pic.twitter.com/oKOjx11gSJ — Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 6, 2024 Combined, Skenes (16) and Chapman (12) threw 28 pitches over 100 mph Wednesday. Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports. A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate. He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post. He can be reached at jguerriero@triblive.com. Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free. Get Ad-Free >