The Pirates are already wasting Paul Skenes in maddening ways

Paul Skenes was on the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon, and he was absolutely dynamic again. He ended up going six innings, allowing just one run while striking out nine batters to lower his ERA to 2.06 for the season. Even as a rookie he might already legitimately be one of the top five starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.

The only problem – he got no run support, again, as the Pirates were on the losing end of a 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves.

It is the second consecutive start in which Skenes has allowed one run in at least six innings with the Pirates taking the loss. The same thing happened last Sunday at home against the Tampa Bay Rays, when the Pirates were on the losing end of a 3-1 decision.

Saturday's game not only continued the Pirates' season-long inability to hit, it saw them find a new way to lose when in the top of the 10th inning Edward Olivares was thrown out at home while trying to score on a wild pitch. He was thrown out because he attempted to execute what might have been one of the worst slides you will ever see from a pro baseball player.

Saturday's game was the 22nd time this season the Pirates have had a starting pitcher go at least six innings while allowing one run or fewer. The club is only 15-7 in those games, which comes out to a winning percentage of just .681. The major league average when teams get six innings and one run or fewer from a starter is .804.

If the Pirates were simply just average in those games, they would have two or three additional wins right now as well as a winning record, putting them right into the wild-card picture in the National League. Even worse, three of those seven losses have come in starts from Skenes.

Along with his past two starts – in which he has pitched 13 total innings, allowing just two runs and striking out 17 batters – the Pirates also lost his May 23 start against the San Francisco Giants in which he allowed one run in six innings before the bullpen cropped the game.

The Pirates have three outstanding starting pitchers at the top of their starting rotation in Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller. But the offense is bad and their fundamentals as a team are so bad (to the point where they can not even slide properly with the game on the line) that they are wasting all of it.