Tim Benz: Paul Skenes had 'one of those days' ... as did many other Pirates in a costly loss to Arizona

Paul Skenes’ latest outing was his least impressive since his Major League debut against the Chicago Cubs on May 11.

That day, the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation yielded three earned runs in four innings while allowing six hits, a hit batter and two walks.

On Sunday against Arizona, Skenes struggled through 5⅓ innings, giving up five hits and three walks en route to a game the Pirates lost 6-5. The All-Star starter only allowed two earned runs, but he had to grind through 100 pitches before getting pulled with two men on base.

“He was erratic. He was kind of all over the place,” manager Derek Shelton said. “It’s the first time we’ve really seen him scatter the ball a little bit.”

Skenes also only tallied four strikeouts (his lowest total since getting called up to the Pirates) and topped out short of 100 mph (a mark he normally hits multiple times in a game).

“It’s just one of those days,” Skenes said on multiple occasions after the game.

It certainly was, and not just for Skenes. It was for Shelton, Oneil Cruz, many others in the lineup, the bullpen and the umpires as well.

For as human as Skenes looked Sunday, he still left the game with a 4-1 lead. Relievers Colin Holderman, Jake Woodford and Hunter Stratton all gave up at least one run (although Stratton’s was charged to Skenes).

Holderman had a particularly rough performance. In the seventh inning, the right-hander walked two batters and, with two outs, gave up a three-run homer on a 1-2 pitch to lefty Joc Pederson.

Ready for it? ????

The @Dbacks are back in front after a 3-run homer from Joc Pederson. pic.twitter.com/mOHIfZng7S

— MLB (@MLB) August 4, 2024

“Holdy has got to be better,” Shelton said. “He has got to make a pitch. He pitched for us all year in that spot, and it didn’t work.”

Holderman’s ERA at the end of June was 1.21. Now it’s at 3.07. After a lousy start to July in which he struggled in consecutive series against the Cardinals and Mets, Holderman found his rudder and went five straight outings without allowing a run.

His past four appearances, though, have been a disaster. He’s allowed at least one earned run in each of them. Since July 28, Holderman has given up seven earned runs, featuring four homers.

“That’s the weird spot we’re in,” Holderman said. “I’ve been executing pitches, and the outcome hasn’t been what I’ve liked. But we’re going to get out of this. I had a good two months to start the season. It’s a rough patch here, and now we are going to have another good two months to finish the season.”

Holderman and Skenes weren’t the only Pirates who had things go awry Sunday.

• Curiously, Shelton had left-handed reliever Jalen Beeks warming up in advance of the Pederson at-bat but stuck with Holderman — only to bring Beeks into the game to start the eighth anyway.

• Shelton also called for Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who already had two hits on the day) to bunt with runners on first and second with no outs in the ninth down 6-5. Kiner-Falefa popped up his bunt attempt for the first out.

• Cruz went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, and he hit into a double play. One of those strikeouts came in the ninth-inning with two on and one out. He was 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

• The lineup left eight men on base and committed 11 outs with runners in scoring position. Newly acquired Bryan De La Cruz was 1 for 5 with three strikeouts, and he stranded the tying run on third base in the ninth inning.

• The umpires squeezed Holderman on multiple calls in the seventh inning, and took a clock violation against Diamondbacks pinch-hitter Lourdes Gurriel off the board after Beeks had thrown a pitch.

“I think it was that they should’ve awarded (Gurriel) more time since he was a pinch-hitter. So it went from 1-1 to 1-0. That was my understanding,” Beeks attempted to explain. “They should have allowed more time for a pinch-hitter on the pitch clock after a strike had been awarded to him and they took the strike off and the second pitch was then a ball.”

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Gurriel ended up walking, and Shelton was irate about the matter after the game.

“I understand how the rule works. I have never seen that before,” Shelton said. “We throw a pitch and then have a violation after that (which) is taken away? I don’t understand that.”

Gurriel didn’t score, though, so a lot of the other issues that went wrong for the Pirates were much more consequential — as was the result of the game itself.

The Diamondbacks took two of three games at PNC Park, just as they did against the Bucs in Arizona last week. By virtue of those four victories, the DBacks sit in the third (and final) National League Wild Card spot, 3½ games in front of the sixth-place Pirates. Two other teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets — are also between the Pirates and Arizona.

Over the Pirates’ next nine games, six of them are against the San Diego Padres, the second place team in the Wild Card hunt. If the Pirates can’t do better against them than they did against Arizona, forget Sunday being “one of those days.”

It’ll turn into 2024 being another “one of those years” where lots of hope for the Pirates just melts away in the late summer heat.