So far in 2026, the Washington Nationals offense has been among the league’s best. They are getting production from throughout the lineup, and have a good combination of pure hitting and power. However, they will face their toughest test yet when they square off with Pirates ace Paul Skenes.
While Skenes does not have the shiniest numbers yet, the sample size is very small. It is also skewed by his uncharacteristic blow up outing on Opening Day, where he allowed five earned runs and did not get out of
the first two innings. Skenes’ last two starts have been much more up to his Cy Young standard. He was the Cy Young award winner last year, and the 23 year old is looking to repeat.
Despite being just 23, Skenes seems like he is well on his way to becoming a legend. He posted ERA’s below 2 in each of his first two seasons. The massive right hander went straight from LSU’s campus to being an MLB ace, which is very rare to see. He is truly a generational talent.
Do not be fooled by that 5.25 ERA. His xERA of 2.57 is much more Skenes like, and you know he is eager to get that ERA number back to where it belongs. As we saw on Opening Day though, Skenes is not a perfect pitcher, and if anyone can take advantage of that, it is this Nats offense.
Expect Blake Butera to load up his lineup with lefties. This season, Skenes has had a bit of trouble against lefties. It is a small sample, but lefties are hitting .294 against Skenes, while righties have only managed a .154 average. Even last year, lefties were a bit better against Skenes, though a .210 average is nothing to write home about.
Butera has James Wood leading off against everyone, but this matchup could favor the Nats big slugger. It will be your classic matchup of power against power. Wood is hitting .395 against heaters, while Skenes throws a 4-seamer or a sinker over 60% of the time. Whether it is a strikeout or a homer, we should expect fireworks from the jump. Lately, there have been more homers than strikeouts for Wood.
In addition to Wood, Luis Garcia Jr. is a player I would watch. Garcia loves facing righties with high velocity, and Skenes certainly fits into that category. We know Garcia can time up an upper 90’s heater. If he can lay off Skenes’ soft stuff, he could have a big day.
In the past, the Nats might have shown Skenes too much respect, but I doubt we will see that tonight. The Nats have a top 5 lineup in baseball so far this season, so Skenes needs to respect them as much as we need to respect him. Skenes will have to be careful going through this lineup, or else he will be in trouble.
Heading into this season, I would be pretty pessimistic about a matchup with Skenes. It would be fun to see the best young pitcher in the game, but I would not come in with much hope for the Nats offense. However, tonight is different. This is a true heavyweight battle where an elite young arm faces off against one of the best young offenses in the sport.
If the Nats can handle Skenes, it would be tough not to consider their offense legit. It is still early days, but the boys are just putting together such amazing at bats. In the Brewers series, they did more damage against the relievers than the starters, but they will be ready to roll against Skenes. Hopefully they don’t get too amped up because Skenes can take advantage of that.
In addition to being an elite power arm, Skenes also has elite command. Despite throwing in the upper 90’s and throwing 100, I think Skenes is closer to Greg Maddux than your typical power pitcher such as John Smoltz. He gets a lot of strikeouts because he has great stuff, but he is not what I would call a strikeout pitcher. Skenes is just as good at getting weak contact as he is at punching guys out.
He has a 7 pitch mix with great command like a Foster Griffin, but he throws 98 instead of 92. That just shows how special Skenes is as a pitcher. However, this Nats offense wants to show that they are special too. The best way to make a statement that they are legit is to do it against elite competition. They will have a chance to do that tonight when they square off against the reigning NL CY Young award winner in Pittsburgh.
