Perrotto: Bad Result for Pirates but Bold Gamble With Paul Skenes

PITTSBURGH – Paul Skenes emerged from the dugout and the PNC Park crowd roared.

The Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation was allowed to start the ninth inning for the first time in 12 career starts on Tuesday night and it was a milestone moment. Skenes had yet to go longer than seven innings in any of his outings and manager Derek Shelton gave the 22-year-old a chance at a complete game.

For younger fans, complete games used to be commonplace in a quaint and bygone era. There have been just 18 thrown in the major leagues this season.

Shelton took a risk by putting Skenes on the mound for the ninth after the Pirates tied the score 1-1 on Nick Gonzales’ RBI single in the bottom of the eighth. Skenes’ pitch count was at 91.

The Pirates and Cardinals are in contention for National League wild-card playoff spots. Even though there is still a week left in July, the games are starting to matter now and there was a postseason-type buzz on the North Shore.

Shelton’s gamble backfired when the Cardinals scored a run in the top of the ninth to notch a 2-1 victory and hand the Pirates just their second loss in the last nine games. It also tagged Skenes (6-1) with his first career loss.

Michael Siani doubled down the left-field line on a 1-2 fastball leading off the inning. He was called out at second by umpire Sean Barber, but a video review showed Siani’s left hand slapped the base before Gonzales’ tag following the throw from left fielder Bryan Reynolds.

Siani took third on Masyn Wynn’s groundout and scored when Alec Burleson lined an 0-2 fastball for a single into right on Skenes’ 104th and final pitch.

Skenes did not question Shelton’s decision to leave him in the game. The 22-year-old wanted the ball in the ninth inning with the crowd of 32,422 chanting “MVP.”

“I felt good,” Skenes said. “The complicated thing there is when I come out with no-hitters or whatever in the sixth or seventh inning, the reason I’m coming out in the sixth or seventh at 100 pitches is because I had some longer innings. Those were relatively quick. Low-stress, low-pressure innings. Kind of allowed me to keep going. It felt good.”

Skenes allowed two runs and four hits in 8.1 innings with eight strikeouts and no walks as his ERA rose to 1.93 from 1.90. He had seven or more strikeouts for his ninth straight start, extending a team record.

No Pirates rookie had pitched into the ninth inning since Zach Duke threw 8.1 innings n 2005. Skenes hadn’t pitched in the ninth since pitching a two-hit shutout for LSU against Tulane last spring before the Pirates selected him first overall in the 2023 amateur draft.

“He threw the ball really well,” Shelton said. “He threw two bad pitches in the whole game — the bad breaking ball to Arenado and, I mean the pitch to Siani wasn’t even a bad pitch it was a good piece of hitting, and then he threw an 0-2 pitch to Burleson and ended up right down the middle.”

Arenado’s 10th homer ended Skenes’ streaks of nine hitless innings and 14 scoreless innings. Both are graduates of El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California.

“It’s one pitch. Maybe it wasn’t the right pitch to throw there,” Skenes said. “I executed it well. He’s a really good hitter. He’s a (potential future) Hall of Famer. So that stuff’s going to happen. It’s just about getting back and executing.”

Skenes executed plenty of good pitches until the last one. Perhaps Shelton left Skenes in too long but it was refreshing in an era of babying pitchers – and watching them get hurt anyway – to see a manager ride his horse almost to the finish line.

Even it didn’t turn out the way the Pirates wanted.