VSiN PrimeTime | July 31, 2026 | Hour 2

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is VSiN PrimeTime. Live from the Circus Sportsbook in downtown Las Vegas on VSiN, the SportsBetting Network.

**Femi Abebefe** (0:13)
Welcome back, it is hour number two of VSiN PrimeTime here on VSiN, the SportsBetting Network, Femi Abebefe, Will Hill. Hanging with you guys on this Friday night. As always, you can watch us at vsin.com/watch the VSiN Watch app, and you can listen live on SiriusXM channel 158 as we are taking in the action across Major League Baseball. Right now, the Pirates and the Reds, it is a 5-4 Cincinnati. The story with that one was Paul Skeens, which we discussed quite a bit in the first hour of the program. Paul Skeens had another just another bad outing for the Pirates. Four innings pitched, seven hits allowed, five earned runs, walked four batters, struck out seven, but gave up two home runs. So not your typical Paul Skeens start that we got from there. So Paul Skeens, his day is done for the Pittsburgh Pirates as right now it is 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth. The mother scores though around Major League Baseball. Phillies have a 3-2 lead on the Orioles. We're still scoreless between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Toronto Blue Jays. And also we have the Diamondbacks and the Guardians. Cleveland has a 1-0 lead.
And then the White Sox are up 4-0 on the Tampa Bay Rays. Marlins, Mets is scoreless in the bottom of the fourth. And then the Braves have a 2-0 lead on the Nationals. I was hoping for a little bit more from that from the Atlanta Braves. But hey, we still got some baseball left to go. We do have this tweet, however, from Talkin Baseball. This is about Paul Skeens. And it says, Paul Skeens has allowed five earned runs in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career as he lasted just four innings in Cincinnati tonight. This, during a month that began with the worst start of his career, seven earned runs in Philadelphia, which kind of just punches home the point we've been making throughout this show so far here, Will, is that Paul Skeens just does not look like Paul Skeens. And I'm assuming post-deadline, we'll hear something from the Pittsburgh Pirates because it can't keep going on like this.
Something's got to change.

**Will Hill** (2:14)
Yeah, and we've spent a lot of time on it tonight, so not to belabor it, but I'd be almost surprised if he makes his next start at some point, whether it's a real injury, a fake injury, whether it's just fatigue, whether it's mechanics, you can't go from being as good as he's been through two and a half years because it's not like he's been this all year. Up until like the middle of May, he was as dominant as ever. I can remember tweeting talking about, man, he's going to throw a no-hitter at some point because I feel like every start he'd carry a no-hitter into the sixth or seventh or a one-hitter into the eighth, and he was lights out. You just go game by game. It was awesome until he wasn't, which is five or six starts ago, but this is now a trend here where something's wrong with them and you got to figure it out. And you know what? I know you can't give games away, but he's not helping you. He's not helping you win games. So you got to get him right because if he's not right, it's just you're not going anywhere. So I would imagine there is some news coming here with schemes, whether it's tomorrow or where they have a little gamesmanship and wait till after the deadline. But I'd be almost, I think it's almost at the point now where you'd be a little bit surprised if schemes is taking the ball five, six days from now.

**Femi Abebefe** (3:21)
In a sick and twisted way, but I'll ask it anyway because we're betters. Does this bolster the case for your guy, Don Kelly to win NL manager of the year?

**Will Hill** (3:30)
No, no, because you need him to be good. I mean, they've lost three in a row and they're losing tonight.

**Femi Abebefe** (3:35)
But what if they make the playoffs with Paul Skeens on the IL?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:38)
Oh, then forget it.

**Will Hill** (3:40)
Then you can just give him the award. You don't even need to wait until that's kind of what I'm thinking. They usually announce the awards, announce it early. Announce it earlier this year. Yes, you're right. That would be true, but I'd rather have him healthy.

**Femi Abebefe** (3:51)
Yeah, obviously. Yeah, you take Paul Skeens out because he's going to help you win the game. Because you probably don't need that story for Don Kelly to win it. But if you do get the story of, well, they had to shut down Paul Skeens for much of August and this team still was in the NL wild card race and they still made the playoffs. I mean, who's beating that case? I mean, get this Donny baseball stuff out of my face. No.