The competitive phase of the Pirates 2024 season has been over for a while.

Yep, they used the month of August to take an encouraging trade deadline haul and an above-.500 record and turn it into nothing. What was a 55-52 record and only a few games out of the wildcard race on July 31 turned into a 64-73 record and way out of everything on September 3.

Thankfully, September 3–a Tuesday evening, btw–was Paul Skenes Night in Chicago where the Pirates were taking on the Cubs in the second game of a three-game series at Wrigley Field. Pittsburgh came back late to win game one on Monday night and turned to their rookie pitching phenom to–say it with me–win the series (which is all that matters).

There wasn’t nearly as much buzz in Pittsburgh leading up to Skenes’s 19th start as there was before his first career start on May 11. Then again, why would there be? The Bucs took everyone’s hope, optimism and trust and made their fans look as foolish as Skenes often does when he victimizes opposing batters with his splinker.

OK, enough preaching (complaining). Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this article: Paul Skenes’s start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night.

How did he do?

He wasn’t at his best. In fact, Skenes may have labored more against Chicago than he did at any other time during the 2024 season.

Skenes threw 100 pitches in just five innings of work. The Cubs loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning and again in the bottom of the second. They had eight base runners over the first three frames. Skenes allowed four hits while striking out six batters and walking four.

But he didn’t allow any runs. He settled down and retired the Cubs hitters in order in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.

Also, if he was a grizzled veteran and not a rookie phenom, Skenes may have even stayed in the game after five innings and 100 pitches. Fortunately, Skenes left with a 2-0 lead thanks to a sacrifice fly by Andrew McCutchen in the top of the third inning that scored Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed by a single by Rowdy Tellez that scored Oneil Cruz.

It would be up to Pittsburgh’s troubled bullpen to preserve the win for Skenes, and it got a little help in the top of the seventh inning when Jared Triolo cranked a three-run homer to left-center field to extend the lead to 5-0.

Thankfully, the bullpen was up to the task–unlike the last time it tried to preserve a huge, late lead against the Cubs–as Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski and, yes, even David Bednar combined to pitch four scoreless innings en route to a 5-0 victory.

The win improves the Pirates record to 65-73. Pittsburgh is still in last place in the National League Central Division, but the important thing is that Skenes is now 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA. Wait, how can one individual be more important than the team? Because it’s Skenes, damn it! He needs to stay as happy as possible until he’s through his arbitration years.

We don’t want any repeat of the Gerrit Cole disgruntledness of the mid-2010s.

Maybe Skenes will win Rookie of the Year and the National League Cy Young Award. Wouldn’t that be something? Then, the Pirates can make him the focus of their entire offseason ticket-selling campaign (they’re going to do that, regardless). It’ll be like when they use PNC Park to do that, only this time, it will be with a pitcher and his mustache.

Next up, the Pirates will look to complete the sweep at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night (even though they already won the series, which is all that matters). Domingo German will get the start for the Bucs, with the first pitch from his mound opponent, Shota Imanaga, set for 7:40 p.m.