![Paul Skenes]()
It was a bummer on Thursday when Pittsburgh Pirates rookie ace
Paul Skenes wasn't allowed to continue his no-hit bid through seven innings. Making up for that on Friday was National League All-Star manager
Torey Lovullo publicly declaring Skenes as the starter for his team.
While Skenes was doing an interview on
The Dan Patrick Show, the Arizona Diamondbacks skipper hopped on the horn to break the news to Skenes in real time:
https://twitter.com/dpshow/status/1811793213969084816
https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/1811786318034112879
The concept for this sort of stunt was probably better than its overall execution. Once Lovullo hung up the horn, Skenes didn't really know how to react as Patrick soldiered through the rest of his questions. It's got to be surreal for Skenes. Despite how much hype and public exposure he's gotten — in no small part thanks to
dating Livvy Dunne — already getting the nod as an All-Star Game starter is literally unprecedented for somebody so inexperienced at the MLB level.
https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1811788437864739110
Watch him for a mere inning, though, and it's clear why Skenes is getting the ball for the NL for Tuesday's showdown against the American League at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Just look at the ridiculous variation in velocities of Skenes' pitches.
https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1811751815576248818
The 22-year-old has two no-hit appearances thanks to Thursday's latest gem versus the Brewers, adding to the six no-no frames he pitched in just his second start against the Cubs. I've seen some pretty ridiculous stats in my days covering sports. Baseball is notorious for getting into the nitty-gritty and mining every piece of sabermetrics and advanced data to better explain what's going on. This is pretty straightforward, though, and straight-up silly:
https://twitter.com/YankeeWRLD/status/1811550923409203528
So yeah, it was a no-brainer choice by Lovullo to make Skenes his starter. He has the most special stuff of anyone in the sport, and will get eyeballs on the exhibition tilt more so than anyone else could conceive of doing at this particular point in time.
Thank goodness for Paul Skenes. Where would baseball be without him right now? He's keeping the sport relevant almost by himself during a period where everyone in America is just dying for football to come back and the Summer Olympics are fast approaching. Skenes could be responsible for getting folks to actually tune in live on Tuesday night, rather than just checking out the highlights later on.
PS, decent take here by Livvy Dunne on her boyfriend getting pulled during his no-hitter — even if I disagree with it.
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1811768398612738405
