Take 5: 1979 pitchers offer advice for Skenes

Speaking with a pair of star pitchers from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1979 World Series champions, it was only natural that the conversation turned toward their thoughts on rookie righthander Paul Skenes.

As a 6-foot-7 left-hander who tossed a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers as a 22-year-old in August 1976, John Candelaria can relate to being a young phenom for the Pirates. The Candy Man was impressed with what he’d seen from Skenes through his first three starts.

“Excuse my French, but that (stuff is) electric. He’s got gas,” Candelaria said before Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. “When he learns how to really, really pitch, instead of throwing 100 pitches in five innings, when he begins to understand how to control yourself and get out of an inning throwing just seven or eight pitches and have that gas back there later on when you need it … he’s got all the tools in the world.”

Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, an All-Star and 20-game winner for the Minnesota Twins at age 22 in 1973, concentrated on consistency when discussing Skenes. Blyleven, who ranks fifth in major league history with 3,701 strikeouts, isn’t a fan of pitch counts but offered some smart advice for Skenes as a strikeout pitcher.

“You don’t want to be that flash in the pan, then three years later you’re gone. I want to see Skenes five years from now, and I want him to be the next Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander in today’s game, or Gerrit Cole,” Blyleven said. “Stay healthy. Trust your fastball. God gave him a great arm. Now he’s got to take care of it.

“You’ve got to hit both sides of the plate, work all four quarters. You can’t be afraid to knock somebody on their butt every once in a while, when need be. You have to stay aggressive in the strike zone, try to get a guy out in four pitches so you can get into the sixth or seventh inning. I watch games now and after the third they’re at 60 pitches. That’s 20 pitches an inning. You’ve got to be around 35-40 to get into the seventh or eighth inning.”

Those words appear even more prescient after Skenes made another dominant start in a 10-2 win over the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader Wednesday at Comerica Park, allowing two runs on three hits with nine strikeouts and one walk on 96 pitches in six innings.

And it just so happened to be his 22nd birthday.

1. Making it count: Skenes had five strikeouts through the first three innings against the Tigers, but required 57 pitches.

Blame extended at-bats against Mark Canha, who worked eight pitches before drawing a full-count walk in the second, and Matt Vierling, who took 11 pitches before going down looking in the third, for running up the pitch count.

Skenes struck out the side in the fourth, but needed 21 pitches as Canha worked a nine-pitch at-bat before going down swinging. At 78 pitches through four innings, Skenes was on pace to make it just long enough to earn the win.

Then his start took a dramatic turn. Skenes retired the side in the fifth on nine pitches and needed another nine to get through the sixth, despite giving up a solo homer to Vierling.

“He was really efficient the last two innings,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said, “which was really helpful for us.”

And a sign that Skenes, in only his fourth career start, is starting to learn how to really, really pitch.

2. Split decision: Another strong sign for Skenes is that he threw the splinker more often than his signature four-seam fastball. The split-fingered sinker has become a secondary weapon.

“The way he holds it, I think, is different,” Shelton said. “I think that’s why it has a really cool niche name.”

Skenes threw the splinker on 41% of his pitches (39 of 96), generating 25 swings, 11 whiffs and six called strikes. More important, the Tigers only fouled it off nine times, compared to 11 foul balls against the four-seamer that he threw 33 times (34%), which averaged 99 mph and topped triple digits four times.

“We’re leaning on it, for sure,” Skenes said. “I just had good feel for it and it was doing well, so I kept throwing it.”

3. Rotation reset: Jared Jones was downright dismissive in refusing to use it as an excuse for his short start, but the postponement of Tuesday’s game didn’t help the Pirates’ starting rotation.

With no game on Memorial Day and Thursday a scheduled day off, the Pirates play a weekend series at Toronto before another off day on Monday, followed by a six-game homestand against the Dodgers and Minnesota Twins.

That makes this the perfect time to reset the starting rotation.

Lefty Bailey Falter and righty Mitch Keller are in line for the next turns. The Pirates will have to replace lefty Martin Perez (groin), who was placed on the 15-day injured list, before his next start. Right-hander Quinn Priester is the likely candidate, though he’s scheduled to start for Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday. Righty Daulton Jefferies, acquired from San Francisco on May 10, could be another candidate after serving as the 27th player for the doubleheader at Detroit.

Shelton has a chance to shuffle the rotation so that some combination of Keller, Skenes, Jones and Falter are the top four starters, and decide whether to continue pitching Jones and Skenes in back-to-back starts or split them up. A top three of Keller, Skenes and Jones could be formidable.

4. Getting better: The Pirates managed only three hits in seven scoreless innings against Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the 8-0 loss in Game 1, as leadoff batter Andrew McCutchen went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts (one looking), a lineout and a groundout.

McCutchen made a terrific turnaround by going 3 for 4 with a groundout to short, a three-run home run, a walk, a double and an RBI single in Game 2, as the Pirates had 13 hits.

“Just really good at-bats throughout,” Shelton said. “Sometimes, when you go through getting pitched to like that, it takes a veteran guy to give you a little bit of a spark, and he did.”

At 37, McCutchen became the oldest Pirates player to have four RBIs in a game since Hall of Famer Willie Stargell had five against the Houston Astros on June 13, 1980 – at age 40.

McCutchen, who leads the Pirates with eight homers, laughed in a postgame on-field interview when Sports-Net Pittsburgh’s Hannah Mears suggested he was aging like fine wine.

“Oh yeah, fine wine, for sure,” said McCutchen, who had his first four-RBI game since a two-homer game in a 17-3 win at the Cincinnati Reds on June 1, 2021. “That’s pretty cool, I guess, but I’m not done yet. Keep those numbers coming. I’m going to keep not focusing on them and go out and play the game.”

5. Who’s on first?: My mention of outfielder Bryan Reynolds taking practice repetitions at first base during a radio hit on 93.7 The Fan last week caused quite a stir with Pirates fans on social media, mostly because of their disgust with Rowdy Tellez’s struggles at the plate.

Reynolds confirmed that he did glove work at first base with bench coach Don Kelly but didn’t take any grounders.

“It felt good,” Reynolds told Trib-Live. “It was my idea. Just messing around with DK, get a little more athletic maybe.”

Reynolds hasn’t played the position since his senior year at Brentwood (Tenn.) High School, when he did so after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum on his right (throwing) shoulder. He never played there in the minor leagues.

So a position switch isn’t imminent, though Reynolds is receptive to the idea of playing another new position after moving from left field to center to right the past three seasons.

“It’s not new, but it would be new with major league hitters hitting it at me,” Reynolds said. “I mean, I’d be willing to play anywhere. I don’t know. It’s not up to me.”