Paul Skenes drops hilarious retirement goal ahead of Pirates vs. Cardinals game

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes is coming off a record-breaking rookie season with the team and is showing signs of becoming a household pitching name in the MLB.

Despite being only one season old in the major leagues, the Pirates flamethrower has already set his retirement goals. Ahead of the Pirates' game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Skenes was seen helping out the ground crew as they were getting the field ready for Tuesday's contest.

Pirates beat reporter Noah Hiles shared a picture of Skenes helping out the crew on X/Twitter:

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When Hiles asked Paul Skenes about it, the All-Star ace said he wanted to be a professional grass cutter after retiring from baseball.

"Followed up on this. Paul said he was out there because he was bored. Added that he would love to cut grass professionally whenever his baseball days are over," Hiles wrote on X.

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Paul Skenes took to the mound for the Pirates on Tuesday and helped the team to their fifth consecutive win after pitching five scoreless innings for a 1-0 win over the Cardinals.

Paul Skenes frustrated by pitch count despite scoreless outing in Pirates win

Despite his scoreless outing, Paul Skenes wasn't pleased as the Cardinals hitters inflated his pitch count, leading to his early exit from the game.

“I think that's one of the things teams try to do against me,” Skenes said. “We've done a pretty good job at times this year of counteracting that. Today was one of the days that they did a better job than we did. There are a lot of pitches that I executed that they just touched. Some for hits, a lot for foul balls and some for outs. Just one of those days."

Skenes threw 88 pitches on Tuesday, including 75 in the first four innings. Although he has been miserly against the Cardinals, he has yet to register a win against them in six outings following Tuesday's no-decision.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash