Paul Skenes walked off the field to an ovation Tuesday night from the crowd of 15,891 at PNC Park after the 23-year-old right-hander recorded eight strikeouts and allowed one run over eight innings.

The applause was more appreciation than celebration, as the Pittsburgh Pirates trailed the Houston Astros, 1-0.

Skenes allowed three hits and one walk but surrendered a solo home run to Christian Walker in the seventh inning, a mistake that proved monumental because of sporadic run support in the 3-0 loss.

The numbers show that Skenes has been one of the most effective pitchers in baseball, leading the National League with an 0.88 WHIP and 10 quality starts in 13 games and ranking second in ERA (2.05) and batting average-against (.181).

Where Skenes has been the model of consistency, he never knows what type of run support he’s going to get from the Pirates’ anemic offense. But the Pirates are 5-8 in his starts, have been blanked three times and scored one run another game. They scored 10 runs in two of his starts, including a 10-1 win at Arizona on May 28.

How does Skenes process the contrast in his effectiveness and the Pirates’ results?

“Unfortunately, it’s baseball,” Skenes said. “I don’t know. I don’t watch the offense a ton. In terms of process and sticking within our plan, I’m not the right guy to ask. But it just goes back to controlling what we can control. It is what it is.”

TribLive spoke with Skenes after the game about pitching well enough to win, only to lose.

How do you respond to Walker’s home run, knowing that it might be the difference in the outcome?

I’ve been in this position a few times, from Air Force to now. LSU wasn’t really a problem. We had the best offense in the league. I was in that position last year. My first career loss was a 2-1 loss here against the Cardinals (on July 23). I’ve done it before. You’ve got to get back to what you can do. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do.

The Pirates are 20-16 in your 36 career starts. What has to change?

I’m not sure. That’s a good question. I wish I had the answer for it. We’ve just got to score one more run than them. I don’t really know.

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How do you not get frustrated or allow the lack of run support to get to you? It puts pressure on you to almost be perfect.

It’s just looking in the mirror. It puts a lot of pressure on you if you allow it to put a lot of pressure on you. That’s kind of how I look at it.

Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself?

I don’t know if it’s a lot of pressure but probably high expectations. I believe that myself and (catcher) Henry (Davis) and a number of the other pitchers here prepare, I would imagine, probably better than anybody in the league. So I go out there and give up a home run to Christian Walker. Well, who cares? It happens. It’s baseball, right? That’s one example. You can’t play this game fearful of what might happen. So you get confidence through your preparation. I think that allows you to turn the page.

What’s going through your mind as you walked off the mound to an ovation after eight innings but trailing by one run?

Honestly, I was thinking I should’ve thrown five less pitches and would’ve been able to go out there for the ninth. That’s really where I was at. I’m not a hitter anymore, so I can’t really worry about the offense more than anybody else. What am I going to do? Go in there and try to fire the guys up and all that? Sometimes you just get beat.

People say, ‘Why don’t they put a stick in your hand and let you hit, given what you did as a two-way player in college?’ Has that thought crossed your mind, or do people not realize how hard it is to hit in the majors?

People don’t realize. I don’t know how Shohei does it. I make jokes that I don’t think anybody finds funny. I see a guy spike a curveball, and I look at the other guys and say, ‘Well, I would’ve swung at that.’ And I think there’s a lot of truth to that. I would swing way too much to be a good big-league hitter. I think we’re closer than people realize with that offensive stuff. Speaking about me specifically, my body feels a lot better when I don’t hit. Pretty soon, that’s not even going to be a part of the conversation. We’re going to figure it out.

Why do you feel that way? What’s the indicator with the offense?

I’m not a scout, so I don’t know what it takes. I’ve lost a lot of my instincts on the hitting side. I don’t really know what it takes to be a big-league hitter. We have a lot of young guys. Henry hit something like .150 (.144) in the big leagues last year. He’s putting a lot better at-bats together this year, and he’s hitting balls harder. And he’s figuring it out on the catching side, too. Endy (Rodriguez) just missed a year. Nick Gonzales just missed two months. (Spencer) Horwitz missed two months. We have a lot of guys that are going to figure it out because they have the makeup to figure it out. You get to the big leagues because of your body and what you can do physically but more than that, you get to the big leagues because of your mind. I think we have a lot of guys that have the right mindset and think about things the right way to where they’re going to figure it out.

Is it too early to shovel dirt on this team after a slow start? Do you feel like there’s better days ahead?

We definitely got off to a slow start. Statistically, there have to be better days ahead, right? Just statistically speaking, that’s how it’s going to work. We’re seeing growth, I think. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

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