ST. LOUIS — Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes still hasn’t found what he’s looking for against the St. Louis Cardinals — a win.
Skenes fell to 0-4 in five career starts against the Cardinals following a 2-1 loss. It is the most starts by a Pirates pitcher to begin a career against St. Louis without a win since JT Brubaker went 0-6 in eight starts without a win in 2021 and 2022.
Skenes pitched well enough in his latest start, allowing two runs on three hits in six innings. But one mistake to Alec Burleson, who hit a two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning, did him in.
“Just not executing,” Skenes said.
Burleson (6 for 15) has more career hits off Skenes than any other major leaguer. Adding to Skenes’ frustration is the entire rally in the sixth started with two outs as Nolan Arenado singled and Willson Contreras walked before Burleson came to the plate.
“There is no secret,” Burleson said of facing Skenes. “It takes a little bit of luck I feel like. It’s just with a guy like him you have to have a plan and stick to it for three, four at bats. It may not necessarily give you success that night but it gives you the best chance to have success. So that’s what I did and it worked out and I had a good time.”
Skenes, who allowed a season-high five runs in a loss to the Cardinals in Pittsburgh on April 8, has a 2.75 ERA in his five career starts against St. Louis.
“I feel like we took tough at bats,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Didn’t have a ton to show for it, but pitch count, we were able to drive that up, some deep counts. The guys continued to battle. You have to stay short through the middle of the field and battle from pitch one against someone like Skenes. I felt like our guys did that.”
Skenes pitched around four walks, matching a career high he set in his last outing against the Cubs.
“There were times where it looked like he lost his command, and then he came back and really executed pitches,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He gave up, what, three hits … and, you know, did a pretty good job. He made a bad pitch on a fastball that leaked out over to Burleson that ended up being the difference in the game.”
While Skenes would like the pitch to Burleson back, he was also the victim of lack of run support once again. In his five starts against the Cardinals spanning 32 2/3 innings, Skenes has received just three total runs of support while he has been in the game.
The Pirates have lost six straight and nine of their last 10 games.
“We’re not being very consistent right now offensively,” Shelton said. “We’re not getting things going and, you know, we’ve tried some different lineups. We’ve tried lineup changes. We’ve tried consistency of lineups. So, I think it’s something we just got to keep exploring.”
Pitching is not the problem, Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes said.
“And I mean, we just got to pick them up and score runs. So however, that may be, whether it be drawing walks, getting that big hit, we just got to find a way.”