PITTSBURGH -- To quote Duke from the cinematic classic ¡°Rocky IV,¡± just after the titular hero cut Ivan Drago, ¡°You see? You see? He¡¯s not a machine, he¡¯s a man.¡±
It turns out Paul Skenes is no machine, either. The Pirates¡¯ ace allowed five earned runs for the first time, resulting in a 5-3 Cardinals win at PNC Park on a frigid Tuesday night.
And ¡°allowed five earned runs for the first time¡± doesn¡¯t apply to just his time in the Majors, but also the Minors and college, too.
"They just got to a couple pitches,¡± Skenes said. ¡°It's not like they hit the ball into the river or anything like that. They just found some holes and I got behind in some counts and kind of let them get good swings off and they found holes. Not going to sweat it. It is what it is."
Skenes has been Superman for most of his Pirates career, but the Cardinals have been his one kryptonite thus far. He¡¯s taken four Major League losses, and three have been to St. Louis.
¡°We have a good plan against him and we stick to it,¡± Cardinals catcher Pedro Pag¨¦s said. ¡°We all have a plan before the game and we talk about it -- what you want to do, what I want to do and what Masyn [Winn] wants to do -- and if we stick to that plan, we put ourselves in a good place to hit whoever is throwing that night.
¡°We¡¯ve been doing that against him [for two seasons] and we¡¯ve gotten good at-bats against him. That¡¯s what it¡¯s all about -- take good at-bats off him and see what happens.¡±
Skenes started strong Tuesday with two clean frames, but started catching too much plate with his ¡°splinker¡± in the third, leading to hits by Pag¨¦s, Winn and an RBI knock by Brendan Donovan. Victor Scott II¡¯s two-run triple in the middle of that frame was the big hit of the night. Alec Burleson and Pag¨¦s tacked on RBIs in the sixth, too, giving the Cardinals the insurance runs they needed to win.
¡°We usually don't see him leave that many balls in the middle of the plate, especially up,¡± Derek Shelton said. ¡°I think that's what got to him a little bit."
Skenes finished with five earned runs allowed over six innings with seven punchouts. He worked with a seven-pitch mix, but touched on the new sinker more than we have seen in the past, with fewer reps with the four-seamer being the main trade-off. The Cardinals couldn¡¯t touch the sinker (two whiffs on two swings, three called strikes), but he also threw it for seven balls, so it wasn¡¯t consistently landing in the zone.
At the end of the day, it could just be champagne problems, a less-than-perfect start that could have been overlooked had a couple of 50-50 balls broken his way. Navigating the waters after a rocky start is basically uncharted territory at this point for him.
"We haven't seen a lot of rough ones,¡± Shelton said with a light chuckle. ¡°But everything that has been on his plate, he's handled very well. I expect him to come out the next time and be what we expect."
From Skenes¡¯ demeanor postgame, it sure looked like he was ready to put the start behind him and just move on to the next.
¡°It's not something I'm going to lose any sleep over,¡± Skenes said. ¡°It's just, it's the game. They're big leaguers. This is their fourth time seeing me. That's just sort of how it goes. Got to tip your cap. They just executed a little better than I did today."