PIRATES

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Paul Skenes pitches Friday night at PNC Park.

Paul Skenes failed to finish hitters when he had the chance and paid for it in a four-run second inning that played a significant role in his stretch of winless starts extending to eight with the Pirates' 6-4 loss to the Reds here tonight at PNC Park. 

Skenes gave up four straight hits, including run-scoring singles to Spencer Steer and Tyler Stephenson, to begin the second. Of those hits, three came in two-strike counts and two came on upper-90s fastballs that Skenes couldn't get by hitters. He fell behind Matt McLain 3-1 before allowing a walk and also failed to put JJ Bleday away in a 1-2 count, eventually walking him after seeing two runs come across to score on sacrifice flies. 

Ultimately, Skenes threw 38 pitches in the second inning, and while he did settle down in his final three innings, he saw his pitch count get to 96 and was only able to cover five, allowing the four runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. 

"Just couldn't get that punch-out pitch a little bit and the at-bats ran long. They did a good job," said Skenes, who threw five or more pitches in 10 of the 23 at-bats against him tonight. "I probably gotta throw a pitch a little bit higher or a little bit lower or something. I mean, they were fouling off a lot of pitches and put some balls in play. Kind of is what it is." 

Skenes used every pitch in his arsenal, going to his 97 mph fastball (40), sweeper (21), slider (12) and changeup (10) more often to keep batters guessing. He said he didn't feel bad about his pitch usage. Instead, he lauded Reds hitters for making him work, as they fouled off 24 pitches and hit six hard-hit balls in fair territory. 

Skenes knows he needs to get quicker outs and throw less pitches per inning to be more effective. It all goes back to execution. When he's at his best and pitching at an elite level, Skenes is executing his pitches and putting hitters away in two-strike counts without dragging out at-bats. That just wasn't the case in the second inning in particular. He had opportunities to get outs, but he didn't capitalize on them.

"Any pitch can get you out of the inning, and any pitch can extend the inning," said Skenes, who is now rolling with a 3.10 ERA and 0.97 WHIP over 17 starts this season. "Just gotta execute the next one."