The best swing of the day against Pittsburgh Pirates starter Paul Skenes may have resulted in the worst possible outcome for the Washington Nationals.
After dusting the first two Nats on strikeouts to open the game, Washington shortstop C.J. Abrams turned on a 99 mph fastball from Skenes and raked it over the Clemente Wall for a home run.
CJ Abrams takes Paul Skenes deep in the 1st pic.twitter.com/dldmp69c9w
— Dillard Barnhart (@BarnHasSpoken2) April 13, 2026
From there, though, Skenes wouldn’t allow another hit over the next 5⅓ innings en route to a win during a 16-5 Bucs’ romp. Skenes would strike out six and walk just one.
After giving up five runs and failing to finish the first inning in his 2026 debut against the New York Mets, Skenes has now given up a total of just three runs and six hits during his past three outings, which have spanned 17⅓ innings.
“Paul did a phenomenal job of attacking the strike zone,” manager Don Kelly said after the win. “He was able to stay committed to his process (after the homer) and get through six.”
That “process” featured Skenes relying on a highly effective changeup most of the game. He used it more than any other pitch Monday, tossing it 32 of 88 times, three more than his four-seam fastball.
Slugging percentage vs. Paul Skenes' changeup during his entire big league career: .147
That's not the batting average.
That's the slugging percentage. https://t.co/7TVOcGOkyM— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 14, 2026
“We might go out next outing and only throw changeups,” Skenes joked following his win. “One hundred in a row. Why not?”
The changeup had to be a go-to weapon for the reigning Cy Young winner on Monday. Washington’s lineup has a reputation for being excellent against the fastball. So Skenes and catcher Henry Davis had to lean on the off-speed stuff.
“He executed his game plan really well and filled up the zone. He kept us in the game the whole time, and the (Pirates’) bats erupted,” Davis said. “He keeps getting better with anything he puts his mind to. He’s able to strike a lot more.”
Perhaps Abrams’ early homer was an immediate lesson not to deviate from that plan, or maybe Skenes just leaned into the changeup anyway because it was working, but either way, a chicken-or-the-egg effect manifested during the game.
Maybe his fastball became the change-up to his changeup.
While Skenes only got two whiffs on 20 fastball swings, the changeup kept Washington just off balance enough that a team which had plated 18 runs and tallied 31 hits in its previous three-game series at Milwaukee never touched Skenes again the rest of the night.
“I just felt good with it. It was executed pretty well,” Skenes said. “It just felt good coming out of the hand.”
The Pirates ace is now using his changeup 21% of the time in 2026, second-most behind his four-seam fastball (37%). A year ago, the two-time All-Star only used his changeup 11% of the time.
“We flipped the script a little bit. It might change the way we look at pitching a little bit,” Skenes added.
The first way the 23-year-old looked at pitching seemed to be pretty effective on its own over his first two years in the league. Now that he is already adapting his game and effectively modifying his approach, that could be bad news for the rest of the league.