Paul Skenes caps awful month with another brutal start, and an alarming stat has MLB fans concerned

Paul Skenes stops by the MLB on FOX set pregame to discuss the impact of playing for the United States ahead of the World Baseball Classic final vs. Venezuela and the energy in the locker room, including sporting Team USA Hockey jerseys pregame.

It's officially August, and MLB fans are officially worried about Paul Skenes.

Not great!

The ace of the Pittsburgh Pirates got rocked again Friday night, giving up five runs on seven hits in a loss to the Cincinnati Reds. It marked the second straight start in which Skenes gave up five runs, and capped a brutal month for the 24-year-old in which he gave up at least five runs in three of his five starts.

Skenes' ERA is now 3.90 — a full two runs higher than both his 2024 and 2025 totals.

Paul Skenes #30 of the Pittsburgh Pirates walks off the field after the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on July 19, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio. (Diamond Images/Getty Images)

To be fair, the ace did have three good starts last month, going 3-0 in the middle of the month with just a total of five earned runs in those three games. So, it's not all bad. It's not all doom and gloom.

Things could certainly be worse.

But ... something is off, and one troubling stat hit the internet last night that has baseball fans worried on this first day of August:

Lordy. I had to refresh the page just to make sure those stats were correct.

Paul Skenes hasn't topped 98 MPH in his last four starts, and he's topped it only 95 times this season. He did it nearly 900 times last year, and nearly 700 the year before.

It's a jarring number to see, regardless of what you think of Skenes' season. He routinely had one of the liveliest fastballs in the league for two years, and the velocity just