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Paul Skenes endured the biggest embarrasment of his career so far as he was taken out of the first game of the 2026 season after just two-thirds of an inning.
He lasted only 37 pitches into his opening day start for the Pittsburgh Pirates, recording two outs but conceding five runs and hitting Francisco Alvarez with a wayward pitch.
It prompted manager Don Kelly to remove the 23-year-old from the game, leaving Skenes looking shellshocked after the lonely walk back to the dugout.
It had been a dream start for the Pirates when Brandon Lowe hit a two-run home run at the top of the first, seemingly leaving Skenes perfectly poised to protect his team’s early lead.
But from the very start, he didn’t seem comfortable. There were, however, no injury concerns.
‘Yeah really tough inning for us,’ Kelly said to NBC after the first inning. ‘It’s pitch-count related really, for him. I don’t want to push him into the mid-40s.’
Paul Skenes walks back to the dugout after being taken of Pittsburgh Pirates’ first game
Skenes was in a bullish mood going into the game, telling his team to aim for the playoffs.
‘We want to win the division. We want to make the playoffs. That’s it. How we do that, who knows?’ the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner said Wednesday.
‘I don’t want to put a number of games out there because that´s just putting a ceiling on us. We’ve got to go out there and play well every day. We have a good team. Now we’ve got to go out there and win.’
Less than 24 hours later and Skenes was left picking up the ruins of his Opening Day catastrophe.
‘It’s a bit of a nightmare, you’d be hoping he cleans up five or six innnings,’ ex-MLB pitcher Adam Ottavino said on commentary. ‘You’ve got to move on, you have to move on.’
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