Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, couldn’t have had a more disastrous start to the 2026 MLB season after not making it out of the first inning against the New York Mets.
Pirates manager Don Kelly took a stroll out to the Citi Field mound to pull Skenes after the Mets put together a five-run first inning that wasn’t all on the phenom right-hander.
But some soft contact, inconsistent accuracy, and two bad plays in center field by O’Neil Cruz had Skenes’ final line read just two-thirds of an inning, five runs allowed on four hits and two walks, and he’ll have to look at an inflated 67.50 ERA to start the year on the wrong foot.
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The five runs earned tied a career high allowed for Skenes, who found himself in early trouble when Juan Soto’s single allowed Francisco Lindor, who walked to start the bottom of the first inning, to get to third base.
With runners on the corners, Bo Bichette’s first at-bat with the Mets wound up a sacrifice fly to get New York on the board, making it a 2-1 ball game.
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Things started to unravel for Skenes after that. Jorge Polanco’s first Mets at-bat was a swinging bunt, as he reached first base with no throw. Then, after a hard-fought at-bat by Luis Robert Jr. ended with a walk, Skenes found the bases loaded and one out.
Brett Baty came to the plate for the Mets with the opportunity to take the lead with a base knock, not just tie the game at two apiece. He caught a changeup from Skenes and hit it hard to center field, but the ball appeared playable for Cruz.
That is until Cruz’s first step was in, and he stopped moving, as he looked up into the sky. When he realized his error, he started to sprint backwards and the ball landed over his head and rolled to the deep center field wall. The misplay allowed all three Mets baserunners to score, making it a 5-2 game as Skenes looked exasperated on the mound.
The next at-bat was Marcus Semien who, like his other new teammates in blue and orange, got a timely hit, but it should’ve been caught if not for Cruz’s second blunder. He lost the pop up to center field in the sun, fighting it with his glove before the ball landed next to him, as Baty scored from third to make it 5-2.
Skenes would last only two more batters, hitting catcher Francisco Alvarez in the arm. Kelly came out of the dugout after that, pulling his ace after 37 pitches.
During an in-game interview with NBC, he said the early exit was “pitch count related,” as it isn’t very rare for a single frame to get higher than 30 pitches. Being that it’s the start of the season, and Skenes had a full workload during the World Baseball Classic, which saw him over 70 pitches in his semifinal start against the Dominican Republic, the Pirates made sure to be cautious.
The 23-year-old Skenes came into this season with a career 1.96 ERA across 55 starts for the Pirates (320.2 innings), as he’s quickly asserted himself among the best pitchers in the game.
But even the best have their off days, and a combination of all the things that could go wrong resulted in an opening day start to forget in Queens.
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