Pirates Paul Skenes had golden motivation for Team USA at WBC

National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes has all the motivation he needs heading into the World Baseball Classic, courtesy of Team USA’s success at the Winter Olympics.

“Winning gold is the biggest thing,” the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ ace told reporters after his first spring training start Wednesday in North Port, Florida. “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.

“USA wins, it’s what we do. Got to keep it going.”

His 53-pitch outing against the Atlanta Braves is expected to be the only one Skenes has before he joins the U.S. for the World Baseball Classic. Skenes said he expects to make two starts in the tournament, which begins for Team USA with pool play at Daikin Park in Houston with games against Brazil (March 6), Great Britain (March 7), Mexico (March 9) and Italy (March 10).

“Whichever game I’m pitching in, it doesn’t really matter,” Skenes told reporters. “Just want to win gold.”

The tournament culminates with the WBC finals March 17 in Miami.

Team USA also boasts starting pitchers Tarik Skubal, Joe Ryan, Matthew Boyd, Logan Webb, Clay Holmes and Nolan McLean on its roster.

“There’s going to be two, two-and-a-half weeks to pick guys’ brains,” Skenes told reporters. “Talking to them is great but seeing how they operate is another thing. So, aside from winning a gold medal, it would be a pretty good reward for doing that.”

Skenes, who pitched for the U.S. Air Force Academy for two seasons before transferring to LSU for his junior year, said he told Team USA manager Mark DeRosa that he wanted to honor U.S. servicemen and women by pitching in the WBC.

“That’s what we do it for,” Skenes told The Athletic on Tuesday. “This is the greatest country in the world. That’s what I believe. That’s why I wanted to serve, why I went to the Air Force Academy. And those folks don’t get the recognition they deserve.

“… We’re doing it to represent the men and women that are fighting for us, along with many other things that make this country the greatest country in the world. That puts it into perspective a little bit.”

In his first spring start, Skenes faced a challenge of another kind. He struck out four and walked four over 2⅓ innings, but the Braves 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.

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 (ABS) 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.

Skenes, whose fastball was consistently in the upper-90s, allowed one hit and one run while facing 12 batters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.