Lack of offense spoils solid start by Paul Skenes as Pirates are shut out by Cardinals

A quality start by Paul Skenes — one run over six innings, to be exact — seems like it should be a winning recipe for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Unfortunately for them, that’s not how things played out Monday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, as the Cardinals rode seven scoreless innings by Andre Pallante and did damage against the Pirates bullpen to win, 4-0.

The Pirates’ bats were quiet in the loss, their 12th shutout of the season, as they managed only four hits while striking out 12 times.

Pallante picked up the win, while Skenes (10-3, 2.07 ERA), who struck out seven on four hits with a walk, was charged with the loss.

“Overall, he threw the ball well,” said manager Derek Shelton on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “It was a one-run game going into the seventh. Pallante had thrown the ball well. It kind of changed from there.”

Skenes prevented any baserunners until the fourth, when Alex Burleson got aboard on an error.

As Skenes battled Paul Goldschmidt at the plate, he attempted to pick off Burleson at first three times during the at-bat, leading to a disengagement violation, which moved the runner to second.

That came back to bite Skenes and the Pirates (71-79).

Goldschmidt, following a nine-pitch at-bat, moved Burleson over to third with a soft groundout before Nolan Arenado knocked him in with an RBI single, collecting St. Louis’ first hit of the game.

Skenes required 25 pitches to escape the frame, with the Cardinals taking a 1-0 lead.

“They’re a good lineup,” Skenes said. “It’s going to be grindy sometimes.”

Meanwhile, Pallante struck out seven through the first five innings.

Jared Triolo had a bloop single in the fifth, but, other than that, the only Pirate with any offensive success against him was Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who led off the game with a single before doubling in the third.

In the sixth, Skenes allowed a single to Masyn Winn before walking Burleson.

With Shelton starting to loosen pitchers in the bullpen, Skenes struck out Goldschmidt and got Arenado to ground out, closing out the inning and his own outing at 102 pitches.

In the seventh, Bryan De La Cruz got on base with a single and took second after Winn made an errant throw to first.

After Yasmani Grandal walked, putting two men on with an out, Nick Yorke was unable to drive anyone home, hitting into a force out.

With men on second and third, Pallante struck out Triolo looking, ending the Pirates’ best scoring opportunity of the game.

Following Skenes’ exit, things quickly went off the rails for Ryan Borucki, his successor in the seventh.

Borucki walked Brendan Donovan to start and committed a throwing error to first on an infield single by Lars Nootbaar.

He then walked Jordan Walker, loading the bases with no outs before being replaced by Colin Holderman.

Pedro Pages, the first batter Holderman faced, made it 2-0 with an RBI single, reloading the bases, still with no outs.

Holderman put out the fire from there.

The Cardinals added to their lead in the eighth.

Kyle Nicolas began the inning but was removed after walking Goldschmidt with an apparent injury.

Jalen Beeks took over with no outs and allowed an RBI double to Donovan, with Nootbaar picking up a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.