Skenes displays unwavering attitude, efficiency in scoreless outing

ST. LOUIS -- After allowing back-to-back singles to Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan to begin the fifth inning in a scoreless game, Paul Skenes showed resolve in a pressure situation on the road against a National League Central rival. 

Skenes, who surrendered a singular hit through an efficient first four innings, quickly got ahead of the next two batters he faced and picked up a pair of strikeouts to regain control and eventually escape without letting a runner cross home plate: 

Skenes' unwavering attitude, ability to dominate any hitter he faces and the efficiency he showed throughout 6 1/3 scoreless innings were on full display in the inning, as he put together another stellar performance in the Pirates' 2-1 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium Tuesday night. 

"Just unfazed," Connor Joe said. "You can tell he's confident, aggressive, pounding the zone. It's really, really fun to play defense behind him. He's just attacking, confident and keeping us off the field, in the dugout, which is great. So, really, really fun to watch him and see him do his thing."

"That's the game," said Skenes. "You're going to get yourself into stuff, get yourself out of stuff. It was definitely nice to be able to get out of those situations."

Skenes retired the first 10 batters he faced before allowing five hits and refusing to walk a batter for the first time in six major-league starts. He also registered eight strikeouts, tossed a career-high 103 pitches and tallied his fourth quality start. 

“Through the first four, he was extremely efficient. Then, he got out of the first and third with nobody out in the fifth and executed pitches," Derek Shelton said. "I thought he did a good job of using the splinker to keep them off balanced and then he went to the fastball when he had to. Overall, very impressive. To get out of the first and third situation with nobody out, we continue to see growth out of Paul.” 

Skenes utilized his entire arsenal to his advantage. He knew when to turn to his fastball, which he leaned on 43 times with an average of 99.1 mph, and used his splinker to keep hitters guessing. But the biggest surprise was the increased usage of a curveball that had been turned to less than 4% of the time entering Tuesday. In fact, Skenes had only thrown it 18 total times. On this day, he went to it on 20 separate occasions, striking out three batters with it, including Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson to begin the game: 

"Just a pitch that I had good feel for in the bullpen and the last couple weeks," Skenes said. "It was a good matchup, I thought, for them, so we used it."

After seeing Skenes punch out the first two batters of the game with the devastating breaking ball, Shelton could tell he had a good feel for it. 

"When he has a feel for it, he has so many weapons to use," Shelton said. "I thought Yaz did a really nice job of implementing it and mixing it in."

Skenes allowed one-out singles in both the fourth and sixth innings before getting a strikeout and a groundout to escape the former and inducing an inning-ending double play to go unharmed in the latter. He pitched into the seventh for the first time in his big-league career and struck out the first batter he faced. But a one-out double by Arenado ended any hope of Skenes going further in the inning. Aroldis Chapman entered and got two quick fly outs to preserve the scoreless outing. 

This start in particular was different for Skenes considering there was less room for error in a tight game. Not the same scenario as last time around when he was pitching with a seven-run lead. 

"Just being able to attack hitters more and whatever happens, happens," Skenes said, referring to his last outing against the Dodgers last week. "I had to execute really well and get the hitters with different stuff each time through the order. It was a fun day for pitching."

Skenes was opposed by Miles Mikolas' one-hit performance through seven scoreless innings. He struck out six, held a no-hitter through six innings and continued his dominance of the Pirates, a team he maintained a 3.08 ERA against in 21 career appearances and 18 starts entering Tuesday. 

Still, despite Mikolas' ability to keep the Pirates hitless for a majority of the night, it was Skenes who deservedly exited the game to a rare standing ovation from the opposing fans in attendance. 

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