Unlike Juan Soto, Paul Skenes isn’t satisfied with the loss

Sébastien Berrouard
Unlike Juan Soto, Paul Skenes isn’t satisfied with the loss
Credit: Newsweek

After the Dominican Republic was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, Juan Soto proclaimed loud and clear that the Dominicans were still the best in the world. Usually, you can say that when you win.

Quite the opposite, after the U.S. run ended in the championship game, Paul Skenes quickly made it clear that the American team's performance fell short of its potential when asked to evaluate his experience at the international tournament.

Not good enough.

Yet the reigning Cy Young Award winner had a lot of success at the WBC in two games with the Americans, posting an earned run average of 1.08 over eight and a third innings of work and earning the win in both games.

Before the tournament, the former cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy—who later transferred to LSU to focus on baseball—seemed to be perhaps the MLB player most enthusiastic about joining the U.S. team.

Skenes had said at the time that he viewed the World Baseball Classic as an opportunity for Team USA to assert its dominance over the rest of the world. While the 23-year-old certainly did his part with two dominant outings, he ultimately left Miami disappointed as the Americans fell short in their quest.

The guys really wanted to win, though.

The ace pitcher will have to look ahead, however, to the Pittsburgh Pirates' promising 2026 season. After the Pirates drafted him first overall in 2023, Skenes had a historic start to his career.

By the end of the 2025 season, he became the first pitcher in Major League Baseball history to post an ERA below 2.00 in two consecutive seasons before the age of 23 since Walter Johnson in 1910 and 1911.

He will aim to continue this streak in the coming months.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.

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