“Yeah, there's no question about it,” manager Craig Counsell said Friday morning before the Cubs lost 9-3 to the Pirates in their second matchup with Skeens.
“You flash 102 [mph]” Counsel added. “that's good.”
Skeens impressed everyone in his debut start against the Cubs in just over four innings (six hits, three runs, seven strikeouts), but he stepped up to the next level Friday at Wrigley Field. The Cubs did not record a hit against the 21-year-old in six innings pitched. He had 11 strikeouts, including the first seven Cubs batters to start the game.
This streak is the third-longest streak by a rookie starting pitcher in the live-ball era (since 1920), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Jacob deGrom (Sept. 15, 2014) and Jim Deshaise (Sept. 23, 1986) each had eight strikeouts.
Michael Busch, who walked with one out in the fifth inning, was Chicago's only runner in the game against Skeens.
Skeens' arsenal includes a four-seam fastball, a splitter-sinker hybrid he calls a “slinker,” a slider, a curveball and a changeup. On Friday, he focused on fastballs (41 pitches) and slinkers (33 pitches), while also mixing in sliders (15 pitches), curveballs (7 pitches) and changeups (4 pitches).
“The splits were really good and they were really competitive every time,” Counsell said after the game. “These guys have enough speed difference between the two pitches that it's going to be very difficult.”
Skeens' four-seamer averaged 99.3 mph and hit a top speed of 161.2 mph on Friday. He averaged 94.8 mph on the slinker and hit a top speed of 96.5 mph.
“This is a big boy who throws a heavy baseball,” said Cubs center fielder Pete “Crowe” Armstrong, who started the game by ending Skenes' consecutive strikeout streak with a groundout to first baseman Rowdy Telles with two outs in the third inning.
“He does a really good job with everything, including mixing. It's hard to hit a guy who throws over 100 pitches with two or three really good second pitches and a sinker that moves like a 95-degree changeup. .”
Cubs designated hitter Mike Tauchman, who started on Friday, said the Skenes' sprinker is a lot further away from the four-seamer and has a similar way of coming out of his hands, but the off-speed pitch has more runs and drops than the heater. He said there are many.
In Skeens' debut on Saturday, the Cubs whiffed 35 percent against him (14 of 40 swings), including seven against Sprinker. Of his seven strikeouts on the day, four came from a four-seamer, two from a slider and one from a slinker.
On Friday, the Cubs whiffed 41 percent (22 of 54 swings), including 12 whiffs on four-seamers, five whiffs on slinkers, and four whiffs on sliders. The Cubs had eight strikeouts against Skeens' four-seamer, two strikeouts against his slinker, and one strikeout against his slider.
“I felt like I was a little bit lower on the mound than my last start,” Tauchman said. “I thought his fastball control was pretty good today, but then he was able to tunnel splitters and sinkers and whatever he wanted to throw from that line of pitch, but he was able to make those really, really competitive pitches. We were able to.
“When you're dealing with guys that fast and they're in command and you have to make split-second decisions, you know he did a good job.”
Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks took the ball Friday and was matched up with Skeens early. He allowed only one base runner (a single) through two innings. But Pittsburgh ended up scoring 11 hits and eight runs (seven earned runs) in 4 2/3 innings.
“Honestly, I thought I made two bad pitches. It's crazy to say that after seeing that start,” Hendricks said, referring to the two changeups he left in the zone. “I thought I was better in the zone. I probably executed better than my last start. It's just weird. A lot of soft batted balls were coming down in front of me.”
Jared Toriolo hit one of his changeups for a two-run homer in the third inning, and Nick Gonzalez hit another double in the fourth. Hendricks noted that Rowdy Telles hit a 106.4 mph single into the left field seats just before Toriolo's home run. Yasmani Grandal hit a 106.9 mph RBI single in the fourth.
