Paul Skenes of the Pirates participated in one of six shutouts on Thursday. His produced the best game score of the day as went seven innings without allowing a hit, walking one and striking out 11. That was good for a game score of 87, which tied for others for fifth best of the season. It also moved him to to 98th in the Bill James Pitcher Rankings. Climbing in the rankings tends to be a slow process. He pasted fellow rookie Shota Imanaga, who has been up the entire season. Skenes went from the baseline 300 points to 402 points in just 11 starts.

Another good sign for Skenes is despite the high K total, he finished seven inning with just 99 pitches thrown. He’s now averaging six innings per start, and if he can keep working efficiently with a high K total, we may see many more seven innings starts from him this season.