Thursday's game at American Family Field drew a larger crowd than normal for a typical day game with 36,743 fans in attendance to watch rookie phenom Paul Skenes.
Skenes started on the mound for Pittsburgh Thursday afternoon dealing seven no-hit innings and a career-high tying 11 strikeouts in the Pirates 1-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
The 22-year-old All-Star was pulled with two innings to go after reaching 99 pitches.
"I definitely wanted to finish it, but throwing every six days, five days – whatever it is now – I definitely understand," Skenes expressed postgame.
VIDEO: Pirates rookie Paul Skenes throws 7 no-hit innings, 11 K's against Brewers
Pirates rookie Paul Skenes throws 7 no-hit innings, 11 K's against Brewers
Thursday's outing marked Skenes' 11th major league start. He was selected No. 1 overall in last year's draft but has quickly become of the league's most dominant pitchers.
Skenes walked one batter while lowering his ERA to 1.90.
"It just comes down to going out there and executing, so if strikeouts are what that looks like then so be it," Skenes added. "It’s just about getting outs.”
The right-handed pitcher set a new Pirates franchise record by recording seven or more strikeouts in eight consecutive starts.
“Sixty-three pitches in three innings he realized okay I have to do something a little different and he did," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "That’s when you have to get hits off of him. Credit to him. That was the story of the game. He was dynamite.”
Thursday’s performance came just two days after Skenes met Brewers broadcasting legend Bob Uecker. The rookie requested the meeting ahead of Pittsburgh's series with Milwaukee.
“I wanted to meet him," Skenes shared. "We didn’t really talk about anything, it’s just – I wanted to meet him and see how he was and he was everything you would expect him to be and a little bit more. That was really cool.”
The Brewers lost the series 2-1 against Pittsburgh.
Milwaukee opens it's final three-game series Friday night before the All-Star break against the Washington Nationals. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. CT.
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