Simple stat shows why Cardinals 'owning' Paul Skenes is ridiculous

Paul Skenes had a tough night at the office on Tuesday, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3. He allowed six hits, one walk and most crucially a career-high five earned runs, in what was arguably his worst outing yet in the Majors.

Skenes losing to the Cardinals is actually nothing new, as evidenced by him now being 0-3 in four starts versus the NL Central team. In fact the Pirates' divisional rivals are the only team with a winning record against the 2024 NL Rookie of the Year, having tagged him with all but one of his four career losses.

This has led to a narrative that the Cardinals have Skenes' number. As per MLB.com's John Denton, Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés said: " ... it is the fact that we compete, we have a good plan against him and we stick to it. We’ve been doing that against him [for two seasons] and we’ve gotten good at-bats against him."

Do the Cardinals really have Pirates ace Paul Skenes' number?

The things is, though, it seems a lot of people are getting a little bit too carried away about Skenes' outings against the Cardinals, with him not being that bad against them. For a start, consider the following stats:

The reality is that the 2023 first overall draft pick has only had one poor outing versus the Cardinals, having allowed just three combined earned runs in his three previous starts against them. This includes an excellent performances last season when he allowed only four hits and two earned runs over a career-high 8.1 innings, but was still tagged with the loss due to the Pirates only scoring one run themselves.

Even when you include Tuesday night's nightmare, Skenes' overall stats against the Cardinals make for positive reading. Among other things, he has a 2.70 ERA and 0.788 WHIP in the four starts, along with holding the 11-time World Series champions to a .194 batting average and .486 OPS.

Cardinals owning Paul Skenes is just far-fetched

So yes, the Cardinals might have Skenes' number in respect of their ability to beat him, but they certainly aren't 'owning' him when based on his overall performances against them. In fact, in some respects this all brings to mind the saying about not letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

In any event, Pirates fans shouldn't be too concerned, with the 2024 All-Star Game NL starter not particularly bothered despite the 5-3 loss to the Cardinals. Also as per Denton, he said: "It's not something I'm going to lose any sleep over. It's just, it's the game. They're big leaguers. This is their fourth time seeing me. That's just sort of how it goes."

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