Paul Skenes collects nine strikeouts in loss to Braves

ATLANTA — Perhaps opposing teams should stop hitting leadoff homers against Paul Skenes. It usually doesn’t bode well for them the rest of Skenes’ afternoon.

Skenes overcame his first-inning mistake to Jarred Kelenic — and some general wildness early — to toss six innings of one-run ball. It was the second straight start in which Skenes allowed a leadoff homer, and then didn’t allow another run the rest of the way.

However, it was also the second straight time the Pirates’ bats could not capitalize on Skenes’ quality start. Pittsburgh could only muster one run on Saturday, and wound up losing, 2-1 in 10 innings, to the Braves at Truist Park.

This wasn’t the best Skenes has looked. Actually, it might have been the shakiest he’s been since his Major League debut, when the adrenaline got the best of him. On Saturday, he missed to his hand side often, making him lean on his “splinker” — the splitter-sinker hybrid — more in key spots, especially when he got Marcell Ozuna to ground into an inning-ending bases-loaded double play to escape the third.

Given the almost otherworldly expectations that follow Skenes, an outing in which he doesn’t reach triple digits with his fastball, walks a couple of batters and overall looks a little more human than usual almost seems like seeing racing pierogy Bacon Burt without his mustache. (Or heck, Skenes without his mustache.)

“I mean, it was a good outing,” Skenes said with a smile. “You always have to battle with heat and humidity. Execution wasn’t where I wanted it to be. I had to battle a little bit.”

He would get stronger as the game progressed, including striking out the last four batters he faced to finish with nine on the afternoon, but the Braves did manage to get that quick strike early.

“Everybody knows who [Skenes] is,” Kelenic said. “I made a plan to myself that I was going to be aggressive in the zone, especially on the fastball, early. I was just on time for it … He’s got great stuff, and he’s going to be an absolute superstar.”

Skenes has already made starts without perfect execution on one or two of his pitches, but he could fall back to any of the other offerings in his five-pitch mix. Against the Braves, though, it wasn’t until about the fifth inning that he finally got any pitch really clicking. That was his fastball, and the rhythm came after the Truist Park grounds crew attended to the pitcher’s mound. Skenes said afterwards that the maintenance allowed him to move down the mound better and helped a bit.

But even on a day where everything seemed to be not quite as crisp as usual, it’s hard to argue with the final results.

“I think it’s a big learning moment,” said Derek Shelton. “He only gave up one run, and it was a leadoff homer to a lineup that’s pretty All-Star studded. The fact that he was able to make an adjustment in-game was really impressive.”

Shelton hinted that the adjustment was with Skenes staying in his delivery. There’s a case that it could also involve a change in pitch mix, as Skenes threw more splinkers than four-seamers (35 to 30). When told that Shelton alluded to an adjustment, it was news to Skenes, who chuckled that he didn’t exactly know what it was.

“Probably just stop trying as hard and execute pitches,” Skenes said. “I kind of settled in throughout the game. Especially early, I was just trying too hard.”

Ah, the takeaways from when you can do incredible things with the flight path of a baseball.

The one thing Skenes can’t do, though, is generate offense himself. The Pirates had three solid chances to break through late, but each time failed to capitalize. Yasmani Grandal put a charge into one with two on and two out in the eighth, but Kelenic made a terrific catch at the wall to end the inning. Bryan Reynolds extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a ninth-inning triple, but Edward Olivares grounded out to end the inning. In the 10th, Olivares broke for home on a potential wild pitch, and while he got to the plate before pitcher Daysbel Hernández did, his front foot bounced over the plate and he was tagged before his back leg touched home.

It’s tough to not capitalize on a solid Skenes outing, but there are lessons to take from it.

“Just got to keep battling,” Skenes said. “Got to execute from the first pitch.”