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Paul Skenes Makes Cubs Announcement After Brutal Outing

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jon Conahan | Last updated May 2, 2025 2:36 PM ET

What a day it was for the Chicago Cubs, who took on arguably the best arm in Major League Baseball in Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates and Cubs, division rivals, are in completely different spots as organizations.

The Cubs, potential World Series contenders, are much further ahead in their rebuild process than the Pirates, who are still one of the worst teams in baseball at 12-20.

However, when Skenes is on the bump, the Pirates are expected to win the game.

Unfortunately, for the Pirates, that wasn't the case on Thursday, as he was lit up in his five innings of work. He allowed three home runs, five hits, three earned runs, and walked four. After the outing, he didn't sound too happy and had some words about the Cubs.

“Execution wasn’t there,” Skenes said, per Yahoo. “Kind of spraying the ball. Got away with it there for a while, and obviously it showed up a little bit in the fifth, but it is what it is. … I wasn’t super sharp today.”

Skenes later added that he felt good for them, and said “good piece of hitting,” which seemed to be sarcastic.

“Good pieces of hitting,” Skenes said of the home runs. “I don’t know. I probably missed my spot, but yeah, good for them.”

It isn’t easy getting hit around like that for a young right-hander, but it's a testament to the Cubs on what they've been able to do throughout the early stages of the season.

Nobody expected this team to be as talented as it has been offensively, a very promising sign as they head into the summer months.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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