Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes has taken the baseball world by storm -- and Thursday's outing was basically no different from his other 10 starts.
Skenes tossed seven no-hit innings in the Pirates' 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, throwing 65 of 99 pitches for strikes and matching his career high with 11 strikeouts. He ran into trouble in the second inning when he hit a batter with two outs and issued a walk, but he escaped that jam with a strikeout and retired the final 16 batters he faced. The Brewers had just two hard-hit balls against him, a lineout and a fly ball; mostly, they had no chance.
Maybe it's a little premature to call Skenes the best pitcher in the majors right now, just 11 starts into his career. But his stuff does look almost supernatural: the triple-digit fastball, the splitter/sinker hybrid that's so good it has its own name (the "splinker"), the three different types of breaking (two sliders and a curveball) and even an occasional changeup.
There's also no denying: This is one of the best, most dominant, and absolutely most electric starts to a career for a pitcher.
Skenes improved to 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA in his first 11 starts. He has held batters to a .202 average and a .570 OPS while striking out 34.9% of those he has faced. He doesn't have enough innings to qualify for the leaderboards, but if he did, he'd rank first among starting pitchers in ERA, first in strikeout rate and tied for third in lowest OPS allowed.
He has already been named an All-Star and MLB announced on Friday that he will be the National League starter.
"I'm not going to say no to starting it," he said after Thursday's win. "That would be pretty dang cool."
The last rookie pitcher to start the All-Star Game? Hideo Nomo. He's on our list of the 10 best starts ever for a pitcher through 11 starts. Let's see where Skenes ranks.