Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes, who already made history earlier this week by becoming the first player in MLB history to be selected to the All-Star Game the summer after being drafted, made some more of it on Thursday afternoon in just his 11th major-league start. The rookie phenom tossed seven no-hit frames against the Milwaukee Brewers before the bullpen, and specifically Colin Holderman, took over and allowed an immediate single to Jake Bauers to lead off the eighth.
The only blemish on Skenes' day was a second-inning walk to Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell. Otherwise, he established a new Pirates franchise record with his eighth consecutive start of seven-plus strikeouts. He generated 11 swinging strikes, including five on his sinker -- a pitch that he added to his arsenal this spring.
Holderman got into and out of trouble in the eighth and Aroldis Chapman closed out the ninth to finish a 1-0 Pirates win.
Thursday's start marked the second time this season Skenes had thrown at least six no-hit innings to begin a game. That tied him with Max Fried and Ronel Blanco for the most in the majors. Do note that Skenes did not debut in the majors until mid-May. He's also the only player in Baseball Reference's database to have multiple six-plus-inning, no-hit starts as a rookie. In AL/NL history, he and Nolan Ryan are the only pitchers to record multiple starts of at least six innings in which they allowed no hits and racked up at least 11 strikeouts.
Skenes, 22, entered Thursday having compiled a 2.12 ERA (193 ERA+) and a 6.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 10 MLB starts. His seasonal ERA is now down to 1.90.
The Pirates still have not thrown a no-hitter since Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon combined for one against the Houston Astros on July 12, 1997 -- or, almost 27 years to the day. If Skenes and the Pirates had closed out Thursday's effort, it would have represented the seventh in franchise history. The others were thrown by Nick Maddox (1907), Cliff Chambers (1951), Bob Moose (1969), Dock Ellis (1970), and John Candelaria (1976).
This MLB season continues to have had just one no-hitter completed -- that was by Blanco on April 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays. Others, including Blanco himself, have come close in the months since, but no one has been able to complete the transaction.