The Pittsburgh Pirates probably are not yet feeling desperate, but desperation can't be very far off. But another problem for the Pirates is that Skenes hasn't been his usual world-devouring self this season. Facing Milwaukee's pesky, relentless, deeply fucking irritating lineup, Pittsburgh's ace looked much more like a guy than a dude. It's very hard to accept a world where Skenes sits in the 84th percentile for average fastball velocity. For Wednesday's start the Pirates shelved catcher Henry Davis, who previously had caught every one of Skenes's starts this season, in favor of Endy Rodríguez.