Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates are hoping to make the city and their fans proud this season.
Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes is entering his first full season with the team, and he’s set to make his first of potentially many Opening Day starts on Thursday against the Miami Marlins.
Skenes has grown attached to the city of Pittsburgh during his brief time in the league, and he hopes to make the fans proud this year after over a decade of missing the playoffs.
“I think we owe something to the city,” Skenes said via MLB.com reporter Alex Stumpf. “We owe a lot to the city. It’s our job to go out and win for the city because this is bigger than all of us. There’s a reason why Cutch keeps coming back, and specifically to Pittsburgh. There’s something about this city. We saw it last summer. We’ve seen it in the videos of the Wild Card Game. I’m tired of watching them because it was a Wild Card Series. The bar needs to be set pretty high. Not taking anything from those guys. The fact that that’s a golden era of recent Pirates baseball, that needs to change. We owe it to the city.”
The Pirates don’t have the highest of expectations this season, but there’s reason for optimism, and that all starts with Skenes on the mound for Opening Day on Thursday at 4:10 p.m. ET.
BD community, what do you think of Skenes’ comments? Let us know by chiming off in the comments section below.