The Pirates don’t offer Skenes much run support. It could affect his award chances.
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It’s only happened once before. In 2003, relief pitcher Eric Gange won the Cy Young with a losing 2-3 record. But he was also a perfect 55-for-55 that season in save opportunities to go along with 137 strikeouts and a 1.20 ERA. In 1979, reliever Bruce Sutter won with a 6-6 record, but he also led the league with 37 saves and a 2.22 ERA.
As for a starting pitcher with a losing record and the Cy Young? That’s never happened. Trevor Bauer was 5-4 in the shortened 2020 season. Jacob DeGrom was 10-9 in 2018. Felix Hernandez was 13-12 in 2010. But those are your only real close calls for starters.
Paul Skenes is currently 4-6 with a 1.88 ERA and a sparkling 0.835 WHIP to go along with 91 strikeouts. He’s playing the like the best pitcher in baseball. But the Bucs are only averaging 3.5 runs per game (49 total runs) in the 14 games Skenes has pitched in. They scored 10 each in wins against the Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks. That means they’ve score just 29 total runs in the other 12 games he’s pitched in, or just 2.4 total runs per game.
This week’s question is, should Skenes continue pitching this well, but also finish with a losing record, should he become the first starting pitcher to finish with a losing record to win the Cy Young? Or should part of the award also be leading your team to victory more often than not?
Cast your vote, talk to us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results.