Shorthanded Pirates' bullpen in need of rest as Paul Skenes prepares to make 3rd MLB start

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has issued a similar version of the same compliment to pitcher Paul Skenes many times over the last year dating to when he was drafted No. 1 overall coming out of LSU.

To paraphrase, Skenes doesn’t back down from challenges, no matter what.

So far in his professional baseball career – parts of two minor-league campaigns and, after he takes the mound Thursday afternoon vs. the San Francisco Giants, three MLB starts – there’s not been much that Skenes hasn’t been capable of doing.

However, due to a short bullpen with a lot of heavily used arms of late, the Pirates are preferably going to need him to do something Thursday he’s not yet managed as a pro: pitch more than six innings.

A perfect-world outcome would be a light workload for the bullpen in the afternoon series finale vs. the Giants.

Regarding potential recalls or reinforcements, something that will be considered over the ensuing next several hours, the early start puts the Pirates in a tough spot.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to talk about it,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I mean, we play at 12:35 and with the fact that we had to use everybody that was available tonight, it’s something that we will definitely talk about.”

Over the last few days, the Pirates gambled by rolling with a short bullpen — seven relievers in total — after optioning righty Ryder Ryan to Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday to make room for Ji Hwan Bae on the 26-man roster.

That decision, as opposed to optioning the struggling Jack Suwinski or Jared Triolo (to say nothing of making a decision on what to do with Rowdy Tellez), came back to bite the Pirates heading into their series finale against the Giants.

Games 1 and 2 proved taxing on the shorthanded bullpen, with Luis Ortiz, Kyle Nicolas, Carmen Mlodzinski and David Bednar covering 5⅔ innings after starter Martin Perez was removed with one out in the fifth Tuesday.

Jared Jones had a solid start Wednesday, but Aroldis Chapman failed to get his job done in the eighth, walking the bases loaded with no outs before Shelton was forced to insert Colin Holderman, who pitched two of the past three games.

Holderman, with a one-run lead, got two outs in the ninth before the Giants managed to tie the game on an RBI single by LaMonte Wade Jr., leading to Mlodzinski coming in to record the inning’s final out.

When extra innings were required, Shelton stuck with Mlodzinski, who allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits in the 10th, walking two and taking the loss in a 9-5 defeat.

Bednar, having pitched three straight games, was not available Wednesday, per Shelton.

“We had some late-inning magic yesterday and they did today,” Holderman said. “We live and die by it. We’ve got a series (finale) tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes and try to take the series.”

The good news for the Pirates is that Skenes is coming off a dominant start in which he lasted six innings, threw 100 pitches and allowed zero hits while striking out 11 in a 9-3 win over the Cubs.

He also threw six innings in one of his starts at Triple-A preceding his big-league call-up, on April 30.

Ultimately, if Skenes isn’t able to go deep during his start Thursday, the Pirates may find themselves making a tough decision on whose arm to protect: their star prospect’s or those of their shorthanded bullpen.

If indeed the Pirates bullpen is forced to eat more innings than desired, Holderman won’t be shying away from anything.

“It’s what we sign up for,” Holderman said. “Just tell us when to pitch and we’ll go out there and get it done. Whatever moves we make or whatever we do, we’ll be ready tomorrow to win the series.”