Skenes: Team USA Must Assert ‘Dominance’ At WBC, Winning Gold ‘The Biggest Thing’

National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes lost four strikes to challenges in his first spring training start. Skenes struck out four and walked four over 2 1/3 innings for Pittsburgh on Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves, who were 4 for 4 against the right-hander on challenges to get called strikes overturned to balls — one of them by the slimmest of margins. The 53-pitch outing is expected to be the only one Skenes has for Pittsburgh before he joins the U.S. for the World Baseball Classic. He allowed one hit and one run while facing 12 batters. He is going into his third season with the Pirates. “Winning gold is the biggest thing,” said Skenes, who was then asked if U.S. success in the just-completed Winter Olympics provides more motivation. “Yeah, men’s hockey, women’s hockey, all the other golds that we won in the Olympics. We’re America, we’ve got to assert our dominance over everybody else. That’s what we do. … It’s going to be fun.” Skenes threw 27 pitches for strikes against the Braves, along with four other pitches initially called strikes by home plate umpire Chris Segal that Braves hitters challenged through the automated ball-strike system — the so-called robot umpires. “Today, that’s how it is. I’ve just got to adjust,’ Skenes said. “I think it will even out over the course of the season, but ask me in June.” Three of those challenges came on consecutive batters in the first inning. Matt Olson challenged an 82.3 mph curveball that was called a strike, and had a smile on his face as replay showed indeed that the 1-1 pitch was only about one-tenth of an inch off the plate. He went on to draw a walk. “When the season gets rolling, that’s probably not the pitch that you’re going to be challenging, but you’ve got to feel it out a bit,” Olson said. “I figured, whatever. It was a backdoor sweeper that I felt kind of held up a little bit.” Jurickson Profar then challenged a 98.3 mph fastball for a strike on the first pitch he faced, and it was overturned to a 1-0 count before he also walked. Austin Riley sought a replay when a 99 mph pitch on an 0-2 count was called a strike, but was above the zone, though on the next pitch he struck out swinging on a 98.5 mph fastball just below that. In the Braves second, Ronald Acuna asked for a review and got a ball on a 97.6 mph fastball off the plate that had been called a strike. While the overturned strike thrown to Riley was the fastest of the day by Skenes, his fastball was consistently in the upper-90s throughout his outing. Reporting by The Associated Press.