Paul Skenes ended his historic 2025 season like everyone expected: in dominant fashion.
Although Skenes didn’t get the win, the Battling Buccos pulled out a 4-3 win thanks to the gutsy performances of Skenes,
first baseman Spencer Horwitz (3 hits, 3 RBI), and RHP Yohan Ramirez, who squeaked out a scoreless 11th inning to give the Pirates a 4-3 win in a playoff-like atmosphere at Great American Ballpark.
The word ‘playoff’ coinciding with the phrase ‘Pittsburgh Pirates’ doesn’t happen often. But the Pirates are once again playing playoff spoiler in Cincinnati for the second time in three years (we all remember the historic 9-0 comeback that helped tank Cincinnati’s season in 2023), as the Reds have taken two brutal blows to their chances of clinching the third NL Wild Card spot on back-to-back nights. Don Kelly’s club, which has played horrifically on the road this season, has a chance at a rare sweep this afternoon.
Skenes once again set the tone against the Reds, going six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts while just allowing four hits and no walks. This scuffling Cincinnati offense has had no chance of doing much of anything against Skenes this year, as he has now recorded 28 scoreless innings against them.
Most importantly, for the second straight season, Skenes lowered his ERA below two, at 1.97, which all but sealed the NL Cy Young Award (no other Pirate starter except Skenes has finished with a sub-2.00 ERA in the live ball era). The only blemish against Skenes this season was his record, which was primarily due to the Pirates’ poor season and subpar offense. He will not be the first starter to win the Cy Young with a record below .500 (10-10), but he will have the worst winning percentage. The next closest is Felix Hernandez’s AL Cy Young season in 2010, where he finished 13-12.
Skenes finished his season with 216 strikeouts in 187.2 innings pitched, breaking Mitch Keller’s single-season franchise record of 210 strikeouts in 2023. Some of his overall numbers in 2025 were eerily similar to those of 2024, as Skenes had the same WHIP (0.95) and an ERA and BAA that were only 0.001 higher (1.96 and 1.98 in 2024, respectively). With his performance yesterday, Skenes made MLB history as the first pitcher to have back-to-back seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA and 10.0+ K/9 in 100+ innings pitched. Only the soon-to-be-retired Clayton Kershaw and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez have done that in more than one season.
