MILWAUKEE -- The first change was behind the plate. The familiar result never quite returned on the mound.
For the first time in 52 Paul Skenes starts, Henry Davis wasn’t the catcher Wednesday night. Instead, Endy Rodríguez got the assignment as the Pirates looked to begin mixing in another battery with their ace. The change wasn’t the story of Skenes’ night, though. Four walks and one costly inning were.
Skenes departed after five innings with the Pirates trailing the Brewers, 3-0. He allowed three runs on two hits while walking four and striking out six. He threw 93 pitches, 53 for strikes, and watched all three runs score during a laborious 34-pitch fourth inning.
For much of the evening, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner looked far closer to the version Pittsburgh had grown accustomed to seeing. After issuing a four-pitch walk to Brice Turang to begin the game, Skenes retired the next 10 Brewers in order, striking out five during the stretch while leaning on a fastball that averaged 97.1 mph.
Then everything unraveled without Milwaukee needing much hard contact.
Consecutive one-out walks in the fourth finally opened the door before Christian Yelich lined the Brewers’ first hit of the night -- an RBI double just inside the right-field line. Andrew Vaughn followed by shooting a single through the right side to plate two more runs, turning what had been a crisp outing into another reminder of the issue that’s haunted Skenes throughout 2026: command.
Skenes escaped further trouble with an inning-ending double play, but the damage had already been done.
The outing came in Skenes’ first start throwing to Rodríguez after Davis had caught each of his previous 51 starts, the longest active pitcher-catcher streak in the Majors entering Wednesday, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Manager Don Kelly said before the game the move had been planned well in advance as the Pirates look to get Rodríguez’s bat in the lineup more consistently while gradually expanding Skenes’ comfort level with another catcher.
Instead, the conversation afterward will likely center less on who was receiving pitches and more on where too many of them ended up.
Skenes' raw stuff looked sharper. The velocity was slightly up from what it has been this season. But after another outing interrupted by free passes, Skenes exited having shown flashes of his dominant self -- while still searching for the command that’s separated the 2026 version from the ace who spent the previous two seasons looking nearly untouchable.