Fastball

Paul Skenes Does Something Not Seen Since the "Dead Ball Era" of Baseball History

The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees on Saturday afternoon as Paul Skenes rubber-stamped his case for National League Rookie of the Year.

Brady Farkas

Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers Jared Jones (left) and Paul Skenes (right) look on from the dugout against the Milwaukee Brewers during the third inning at PNC Park on Sept 26.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers Jared Jones (left) and Paul Skenes (right) look on from the dugout against the Milwaukee Brewers during the third inning at PNC Park on Sept 26. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees 9-4 on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

With one day left in the regular season, the Pirates are now 76-85 on the year. The Yankees are 93-68 after the win.

In the win, Pirates super rookie Paul Skenes made his final start of the year. With the team clearly limiting his workload, he went just 2.0 innings. However, they were scoreless innings in which he allowed no hits and struck out three.

Since coming up in May, Skenes has been incredible for Pittsburgh, making the All-Star Game and starting for the National League. He's going to be a serious candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year Award alongside Jackson Chourio (Brewers) and Jackson Merrill (Padres).

With his performance this year, he's also done things not seen since the "Dead Ball Era" of baseball history.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Lowest ERA in a season as a rookie, min. 20 starts (since ER official in AL+NL in 1913):

1913 Reb Russell: 1.90
2024 Paul Skenes: 1.96
1914 Jeff Pfeffer: 1.97
1918 Scott Perry: 1.98

Those are the only ones below 2.00… 3 DEAD-BALL ERA PITCHERS AND HIM

Skenes finishes his rookie season at 11-3 with that 1.96 ERA. He struck out 170 batters in just 133.0 innings and looks every bit the part of an ace moving into 2025.

The Pirates and Yankees will finish out the regular season on Sunday afternoon with first pitch coming at 3:10 p.m. ET. All games are at that time on the final day of the season.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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