Pirates squander another Paul Skenes start, losing crucial series

The Pittsburgh Pirates found a way to lose yet another Paul Skenes start on Sunday, delivering a crushing blow to their playoff chances in a huge series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The main culprit in their 6-5 loss — which pushed the Pirates to 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot — was the late-game managerial malpractice of manager Derek Shelton.

Skenes did not have his best stuff on Sunday, throwing 5 1/3 innings and allowing two earned runs on five hits while walking and striking out four.

The fact that is considered an off day for Skenes is a testament to how dominant he has been this season, especially coming against the top offensive team in the National League. But the star rookie still pitched well enough to win the game, walking off the mound (again) with a lead. That is something he has done in 13 of his first 14 starts this season.

Despite that consistent brilliance, the Pirates are just 9-5 in his 14 outings and have blown multiple games either due to a lack of run support — or in the case of Sunday's game — the lack of quality pitching from the bullpen.

The decisive blow in Sunday's game came in the top of the seventh inning when setup man Colin Holderman allowed a three-run, go-ahead home run to Joc Pederson which officially erased what had been a 4-0 Pirates lead.

The fact Holderman was even allowed to face Pederson in that at-bat is where Shelton completely missed the boat and helped lose the game.

Not only has Holderman been on a terrible stretch of games with a 6.23 ERA since the start of July, he has been giving up home runs with alarming regularity.

Even worse, nothing about the matchup made sense considering that the Pirates had two left-handed pitchers in their bullpen, one of whom should have been called upon in that spot.

Pederson, a left-handed hitter, is only 4-for-20 with 12 strikeouts against left-handed pitching this season.

Holderman has allowed left-handed hitters to put up an .865 OPS against him.

Everything about the matchup screamed for the Pirates to bring in either Aroldis Chapman (their highest paid player) or Jaylen Beeks (who they just acquired at the trade deadline for more depth).

Shelton brought in neither and watched as Pederson clubbed a three-run homer into the left-center field seats.

The Pirates theoretically acquired those two lefties for exactly that type of at-bat. Neither one pitched it. Beeks ended up entering the game the next inning after the damage was already done.

The main point is the Pirates found a way to squander another strong start from their ace, this time in a pivotal situation.

When Skenes goes at least 5 1/3 innings and allows two or fewer runs (as he did on Sunday), the Pirates have managed only a .583 winning percentage.

The major league average winning percentage with that criteria is .727 this season. That is how you waste an ace. That is also how you narrowly miss the playoffs.