Paul Skenes pitched five strong innings, even though he had some trouble with his control. The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs 5-0 on Tuesday night, giving the Cubs another hard loss.
Skenes managed to get out of tricky situations with bases loaded during the first two innings. The rookie right-handed pitcher gave up four hits and walked four batters, which matched his season high. Despite this, the No. 1 overall pick from last year’s draft struck out six batters.
“He kept his composure,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “He stayed calm even when the pitch count got high and was able to complete five innings for us.
“He’s going to have to work hard at times, no matter how talented he is. And today was one of those times when he had to work hard, and he did a good job.”
After Skenes (9-2) left the game, Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski, and David Bednar pitched four innings and allowed only one hit.
The Cubs had won six games in a row on the road before losing the first two games in their three-game series against Pittsburgh at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are now 4 1/2 games behind in the race for the final NL wild card spot after Atlanta defeated Colorado 3-0 on Tuesday night.
“The first three innings, we played as well on offense as we could without scoring,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “Unfortunately, we didn’t create any chances after that. “We didn’t score, and that’s not good enough.”
Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks (3-11) struck out five batters while pitching five innings and giving up two runs. He started the game after Justin Steele was scratched due to elbow soreness.
Pittsburgh took the lead with two runs in the third inning, with Rowdy Tellez getting an RBI single.
In the seventh inning, with one out and runners on second and third base, Jared Triolo hit a 0-1 pitch from Tyson Miller deep to left-center for his seventh home run.
