Even Paul Skenes' first big league loss was dominant

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes entered Tuesday's start against the St. Louis Cardinals having never taken a loss in a pro game. Not in the minor leagues. Not in his first 11 major league starts.

Not only that, he had never even left a game while his team was trailing.

That all changed in a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals in which he still looked every bit as dominant as he has throughout the early stages of his career.

Skenes had his longest outing of the season so far, pitching into the ninth inning of the game. He finished with 8.1 innings, allowing just four hits and two earned runs, walking none and striking out eight batters. His ERA is now 1.93 for the season.

By every objective measure, Skenes was great. Again.

The unfortunate thing for him is that his teammates were everything but great.

They not only struggled to give him run support (again) — managing just one run off of Cardinals starter Lance Lynn — they couldn't give him the defensive support needed to close out the game.

With the game tied, 1-1 in the top of the ninth, Skenes nearly struck out Cardinals center fielder Michael Siani, but catcher Yasmani Grandal was unable to squeeze a foul tip on what would have been the third strike of the at-bat. It has been a recurring problem for Grandal all season, and it proved especially costly on Tuesday.

Instead of a quick out to start the inning, Siani had new life in the at-bat and doubled to put himself into scoring position. He was originally called out on the play, but a replay review overturned it. Two batters later, he scored on a single by Alec Burleson.

The bigger issue remains the Pirates' stunning lack of offense. Even though Skenes had not taken any individual losses this season, the Pirates have lost a couple of his other starts due to the quiet bats.

In Skenes' past seven starts, the Pirates have given him just 16 total runs of support while he was in the game, with eight of those coming in one start.

On Tuesday, they loaded the bases twice and failed to score, wasted one leadoff double and hit into multiple double plays.

It is another reminder that general manager Ben Cherington should be doing everything in his power before next Tuesday's trade deadline to acquire another bat or two. His pitching staff is good enough to win right now. The Pirates just need some help from their lineup.