It arguably his worst start so far in the MLB, Paul Skenes gave up three solo home runs in one inning as the Pirates dropped the rubber match of the series against the Cubs, 8-3.
Pomp says offensive needs to be better behind Skenes
With the loss, Skenes is now 3-3 on the year over seven starts with a 2.74 ERA.
In addition to three solo shots by Chicago in the 5th inning, Skenes also walked the bases loaded, but was able to get out of it.
Skenes only had two strike outs and walked four over five innings of work.
The command, the control just wasn’t there as the Pirates dropped their third series in the last four.
Coming into Thursday’s game, Skenes had only given up one home run. He gave up three in one inning.
The Pirates offensive helped Skenes out early, scoring two quick runs, but after giving up the home runs, the Bucs bats were only able to muster one more run.
The Pirates are 3-4 when Skenes starts and that’s just not good enough. The good news, if there is any, is that Skenes had his worst game as a Pirate and it was still a quality start, five innings, three earned runs.
KDKA-TV and 93.7 The Fan’s Bob Pompeani said it’s a shame the Pirates were unable to give Skenes more run support.
“You just got to get more offense, you can’t, every time they go out, get two or three runs a game,” said Pompeani.
He also isn’t worried about Skenes moving forward.
“He knows what he’s doing out there,” said Pompeani. “I’ll trust every time he goes out there he’s going to give [the Pirates] a quality start.”
Listen to the entire conversation above.