Paul Skenes looks to reset after uneven run of starts as Pirates host Marlins

PITTSBURGH. Over a week into August, Paul Skenes is still searching for the sharpness that made him the National League Cy Young winner. In the Pirates’ latest scheduled outing against the Marlins, Pittsburgh’s ace will try to turn a season that has felt uneven into something closer to the level he showed earlier in his career.

According to an MLB team release, Skenes has a 3.96 ERA through 24 Major League starts in 2026. The same release frames that number as a clear regression from his first two Major League seasons, noting it is more than double his earlier career mark over that span. The gap helps explain why the topic in the Pirates’ pitching conversation is not whether Skenes can miss bats, but whether he can consistently command the situations that reduce damage.

For a pitcher who has already reached Cy Young form, “regaining” that kind of level is rarely a single-mechanism fix. Pitching performance over a stretch can swing because of pitch mix usage, command consistency, sequencing, and how hitters are reacting to what they see. Even when a pitcher remains aggressive with velocity, the margin for error narrows quickly once batters learn what to wait for.

Skenes’ matchup with Miami offers a concrete reset point because the game plan can be tailored to his strengths in the moment. The Pirates can shape early counts and leverage innings based on the way Skenes is locating his primary pitches, and the coaching staff can also adjust how much they ask him to expand his zone versus how often they keep him in the strike area. Those in-game choices matter most when a pitcher’s season ERA is not yet reflecting his peak ability.

Just as important, this is a time in the season when “form” starts to feed into how teams manage their rotations. A top-of-the-staff starter often becomes the anchor for bullpen rest and late-season matchups. When a team’s ace is trying to find his groove, it affects more than the individual start, it affects how Pittsburgh allocates innings across the rest of the week and beyond.

The broader storyline for the Pirates is how to interpret Skenes’ August while the season is still developing. A 3.96 ERA is not the kind of line that ends an ace’s impact, but it does report that hitters have had more paths to quality contact than they did in his earlier Major League chapters. The next few starts will indicate whether the current stretch is a correction in progress or the start of a longer decline that needs more than one outing to reverse.

Against the Marlins, the question is simple and practical: can Skenes return to the command and sequencing that made his first two seasons stand out, and can Pittsburgh get the kind of early momentum that often determines whether a pitcher’s night snowballs positively or slips away early. The answer will show up immediately in the efficiency of his innings and how often contact is made on his terms.