North Port, Florida — National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes In his first spring training, he gave up four hits due to challenges.
Skenes struck out four and walked four in 2 1/3 innings on Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves, who went 4-for-4 against the right-hander on a blown strike.
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The 53-game game is expected to be Skenes’ only game before heading to the United States for the World Baseball Classic. He faced 12 batters, allowing one hit and one run. He’s going into his pirates season 3.
Skenes threw 27 strikes and had four more that were initially called strikes by home plate umpire Chris Siegel and were challenged by Braves batters through the automated at-bat system, known as the strike system. Robot Referee.
Three of those challenges came to consecutive batters in the first inning.
Matt Olson challenged an 82.3 mph curveball that was called a strike and had a smile on his face when replays showed the 1-1 ball just went out of bounds. He continued to draw a trail.
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Jurickson Profar then challenged a 98.3 mph fastball on the first pitch he faced, but the count was overturned at 1-0 before he also walked. Austin Riley sought replay when a 99 mph pitch was called a strike on an 0-2 count, but the pitch was above the zone, although he struck out on the next pitch with a 98.5 mph fastball just below the zone.
In the Braves’ second game, Ronald Acuña called for review and hit a ball off the plate at 97.6 mph, which was called a strike.
While Skenes’ flip shot to Riley was the fastest of the day, he stayed in the 90s throughout the game.