When Dylan Crews spoke about Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes before Monday night’s game at PNC Park, the Washington Nationals outfielder referred to his former LSU teammate as “on another planet.”
Once the game began, for a change, Skenes didn’t have to be intergalactically good to get a win for the Pirates. The stars aligned to finally give the beleaguered Bucs a little offense. They won 10-3 over the Nats, posting 14 hits along the way.
Keep in mind the Pirates only managed 10 hits throughout a three-game series sweep at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend.
“It was a team win,” Skenes said after claiming his second victory of the year. “We made some good plays and (got) a lot of offense and timely hitting. It’s good. Just gotta keep it rolling.”
In Skenes’ third start of 2025 against St. Louis at home last week, he came back to earth after his stellar rookie year and his two solid outings to begin this season. The 22-year-old turned in the worst outing of his Major League career, yielding five earned runs en route to a 5-3 loss.
Whatever Skenes didn’t have last Tuesday, he seemed to find a lot of it Monday night versus the Nationals.
“He’s got good stuff. He was attacking the zone. He got ahead,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “The biggest thing with him is that you can’t try to do a whole lot. Use the middle of the field. We got better toward the end.”
Trailing 4-0 in the top of the sixth, Martinez’s Nats strung together a bit of a rally, touching up Skenes for a pair of runs and ending his night after tossing 99 pitches. But over the first five innings, last year’s All-Star Game starter held Washington scoreless and limited the Nationals to just one hit.
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For Crews, it was the type of effort he got used to witnessing in Baton Rouge.
“He’s a really good pitcher for a reason. His job is to get me out, and he did,” Crews said after the game. “He executed some pitches. It was his night.”
By the end of his night, Skenes went six full innings, allowed just two runs (one earned), tallied six strikeouts and didn’t walk anyone. Crews grounded out in both of his at-bats versus the only player drafted ahead of him in the 2023 selection process. However, he valued the experience of facing his fellow Tiger alum.
“It’s awesome. He is one of the best for a reason. He looked really good out there,” Crews said.
Skenes felt the same way.
“I know it’s the first of many times we’re going to be facing each other. He’s seen all my stuff,” Skenes said. “Kind of a full-circle thing.”
Crews’ baptism into the MLB ranks hasn’t been as smooth as Skenes’ experience. His 0-4 night dropped his batting average to .106 (5-47) on the year. However, Skenes expects the 2023 Golden Spikes Award winner to figure it out.
“There’s probably a handful of guys up there with him in terms of guys that I’ve played with that I respect as much as I do him,” Skenes said. “It was just really good to share a field with him again.”
The instant rewriting of history suggests that Skenes was a no-brainer atop the 2023 draft. For much of the lead-up to that eventual decision, though, things were cloudier than we would choose to remember them.
Many thought the Pirates may be tempted by Crews’ five-tool skill set that he flashed on the way to an NCAA title with Skenes. Florida star Wyatt Langford and Indiana High School prospect Max Clark were interesting as well.
Skenes was the proper choice as it turned out, obvious as it may seem now. Yet the Pirates don’t exactly have a sterling history of even doing those kinds of things right all the time.
Going back to Crews’ original analogy, Halley’s Comet doesn’t come around very often. Thankfully, the Pirates were wise enough to take notice.