The Pittsburgh Pirates will move Paul Skenes' next scheduled start back three days, giving the struggling ace extra rest amid the worst stretch of his major league career.
Pirates manager Don Kelly announced Saturday that Skenes, who initially was slated to pitch Sunday against the Boston Red Sox, instead will start Wednesday's game against the Detroit Tigers.
Kelly stressed that the move was not injury-related, while Skenes indicated he supported the manager's decision.
"Ultimately, it was Donny's decision," Skenes told reporters after Saturday's 4-0 loss to the Red Sox, according to MLB.com. "But we had talked about it -- and like I said after the last start, I'll have his back on whatever that is. I don't necessarily disagree with the decision either."
Kelly's decision came four days after Skenes threw just 65 pitches against the Miami Marlins and once again struggled with his velocity, averaging a career-low 95.7 mph on his fastball. The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner didn't elaborate on his velocity drop after Tuesday's game and said he agreed with Kelly's call to lift him after five innings, despite the low pitch count.
Skenes reiterated Saturday that fatigue could be a factor in his recent struggles and said he hoped the extra rest between starts will be to his benefit.
"It certainly can't hurt in terms of recovery, and you add recovery in for anybody and that's going to help," Skenes said. "So I kind of wish it weren't the case, that I was starting tomorrow, because that's something I pride myself on. But in the long run, it's definitely best to just get some recovery time."
The Pirates listed right-hander Lake Bachar as Sunday's starter in what likely will be a bullpen game against the Red Sox. Skenes said he threw his normally scheduled bullpen session Friday and arrived the following day at PNC Park expecting to start the three-game series finale against Boston.
Pittsburgh (60-65) has lost 16 of its past 23 games and enter Sunday in last place in the NL Central and 6½ games out of the league's final wild-card spot.
Skenes, 24, is 9-11 with a 3.88 ERA and 166 strikeouts, the fourth most in the NL, in 134⅔ innings this season. But the three-time All-Star has a 5.79 ERA over his past nine starts and has experienced a notable dip in fastball velocity throughout the season. His average fastball velocity this season is 96.8 mph, down from 98.1 mph last season and 98.8 mph in 2024.
"Everybody deals with stuff," Skenes said. "I think going through a full major league season and not dealing with stuff -- I don't know if there's ever been somebody who's done that.
"So everybody's tired, everybody's grinding, and we just got to keep going."
