PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes might still be relatively new in the major leagues. The Pittsburgh Pirates star isn't new to baseball.
The 22-year-old has been pitching for a while. He knows that some days — hopefully most of them — he's going to have dominant stuff that bends pitches to his will and leaves bats flailing in pursuit.
Tuesday night against St. Louis was not one of those outings. The Cardinals touched Skenes for three runs in the third and two more in the sixth in a 5-3 loss that dropped Skenes to 0-3 against Pittsburgh's longtime NL Central rival.
Skenes didn't blame the worst start of his still-young career on chilly temperatures or his still-developing relationship with catcher Endy Rodriguez. He simply missed spots a couple of times and the Cardinals made him pay for it.
“It’s not like they hit the ball into the river or anything like that,” said Skenes after giving up five runs, the most he's surrendered in his 26 big league starts. "They just found some holes and I got behind in some counts and kind of let them get good swings off. Not going to sweat it. It is what it is.”
Skenes zipped through the first two innings, retiring six batters without going to so much as a two-ball count. His quickly faltered in the third.
Pedro Pages singled on the first pitch he saw, Masyn Winn followed one batter later with a sharp single to left and Victor Scott II hit the first triple of his big league career on a shot to deep right-center field that scored two. Scott then trotted home on Brendon Donovan's run-scoring base hit.
While Skenes said his stuff felt “good,” his mistakes often wound up closer to the middle of the plate than usual. And the Cardinals pounced.
“It’s funny, a lot of the times you get away with those,” Skenes said. "Just didn’t get away with them today. Kind of is what it is.”
The 22-year-old reigning National League Rookie of the Year overpowered Miami and Tampa Bay to start the season. Skidding St. Louis, which had dropped six of seven coming in, proved to be a step up in competition.
The start was Skenes second with Rodriguez behind the plate. Skenes worked almost exclusively with veteran Yasmani Grandal last season, leaning on the veteran as he adjusted to life as one of the game's brightest young stars.
Skenes and Rodriguez kept it simple in Tampa last week, relying heavily on a couple of pitches against the Rays. Skenes dipped into his quickly expanding repertoire — not complete with a two-seam fastball and a split-fingered fastball — this time out, a step in the right direction.
Perhaps even more encouraging, there were times when Skenes would get ready to signal Rodriguez to call a specific pitch when Skenes' pitch comm would buzz with that exact call.
“That happened with Endy quite a few times today,” Skenes said. "We’re thinking very similarly. I don’t think I shook today. I’m a fan of the game that he called and that we called together. It just comes down to executing.”
The last truly bumpy start for Skenes came back home in Southern California when the Los Angeles Dodgers chipped away for four runs in five innings. He responded by winning each of his next two starts, giving up all of two runs in the process.
“We haven’t seen a lot of rough ones (from him),” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. "But everything that has been on his plate, he’s handled very well. I expect him to come out the next time and be what we expect.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Kimi Antonelli helped Mercedes rebound from a disappointing showing in the Saturday sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix by winning the pole in qualifying just a few hours later.
It's the third consecutive pole for the current Formula One championship leader, who blocked Max Verstappen from taking the top starting spot at Miami International Autodrome for a third straight year.
Mercedes has dominated the competition this season, with George Russell winning from the pole in the season-opening race, then Antonelli winning from the pole in the two grands prix that followed. F1 then had a five-week break when a pair of races in the Middle East were canceled because of the war in Iran.
All teams made upgrades to their cars during the break, but after Russell was fourth and Antonelli sixth in Saturday's sprint race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged “we are a little out of sync with our upgrades compared to other teams.”
Antonelli recovered by qualifying and turned a lap at 1 minute, 28.653 seconds to beat Verstappen of Red Bull for the pole.
“Obviously a difficult start of the day with the sprint where it didn't go our way, but super happy with the recovery,” Antonelli said. “We will do our best this week and obviously it's been a little bit more difficult for us.”
Verstappen earned his best starting spot of the season as Red Bull has seemingly improved with its car upgrades. The four-time world champion — a two-time winner at Miami — had qualified sixth in Australia, eighth in China and 11th in Japan.
His best finish of the season so far was sixth in the Australia season opener, and the Dutchman has been so frustrated with the current car regulations that he's talked about potentially leaving F1.
He was all smiles after his qualifying result.
“For sure the car has not been great in the previous races and from my side I never felt comfortable with the layout of the car,” Verstappen said. “I think over the those last few weeks the team has been pushing to try to bring upgrades to the car and making me feel more comfortable with a lot of things in the car and it really pays off.
“I feel more in control of the car again and I can push a bit more. To be on the front row is way better than I expected heading into the weekend.”
Charles Leclerc, who was third in the sprint race, qualified third for Ferrari. Lando Norris, the reigning world champion and defending Miami Grand Prix winner, qualified fourth for McLaren after winning the sprint race from the pole.
Russell was fifth, Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari was sixth and Oscar Piastri of McLaren was seventh after finishing second in the sprint race.
Both of the Cadillac drivers failed to advance out of the first round in the team's first race in the United States. Despite major upgrades made to the new car during the five-week break between the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 and Miami, Valtteri Bottas qualified 20th and Sergio Perez was 21st.
Only Gabriel Bortoleto qualified below them, last in 22nd, because of an issue that caused his Audi to catch fire.
F1 and the FIA governing body are considering adjusting the schedule for Sunday's race because of heavy rain expected in Miami. Most of the drivers have been concerned since Thursday about the forecast, which calls for thunderstorms. The race must be paused if there's lightning in the area because conditions must be clear enough for a medical helicopter to operate when cars are on the track.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Ferrari driver Arthur Leclerc of Monaco reacts after a qualifying session for the Miami Formula One Grand Prix auto race, Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ferrari driver Arthur Leclerc of Monaco, left, talks with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands after a qualifying session for the Miami Formula One Grand Prix auto race, Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli of Italy talks with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands after a qualifying session for the Miami Formula One Grand Prix auto race, Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
