CHICAGO (AP) — Paul Skenes pitched five effective innings while struggling with his location, and the Pittsburgh Pirates handed the Chicago Cubs another tough loss with a 5-0 victory on Tuesday night.
Skenes worked out of bases-loaded jams in the first two innings. The rookie right-hander allowed four hits and walked four — matching his season high — but the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s amateur draft struck out six.
“He kept his composure,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He stayed calm even when the pitch count got up and he was able to finish up five for us.
“Overall, he’s going to have to grind at times, as talented as he is. And today was one of those where he had to grind and he did a nice job.”
After Skenes (9-2) departed, Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski and David Bednar combined for four innings of one-hit ball.
Chicago had won six in a row — all on the road — before losing the first two in its three-game series against Pittsburgh at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are 4 1/2 games back in the race for the final NL wild card after Atlanta beat Colorado 3-0 on Tuesday night.
“The first three innings, we played as good on offense as you can without scoring, unfortunately,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We didn’t really create opportunities after that.
“We didn’t score and that’s not good enough.”
Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks (3-11) struck out five while pitching five innings of two-run ball. He got the start after Justin Steele was scratched because of elbow soreness.
Pittsburgh jumped in front with two runs in the third, capped by Rowdy Tellez’s RBI single.
With one out and runners on second and third in the seventh, Jared Triolo drove a 0-1 sweeper from Tyson Miller deep to left-center for his seventh homer.
Skenes, who struck out 11 in six hitless innings in his first start at Wrigley on May 17, said seeing a team multiple times should help down the line.
“I don’t think it makes me worse, for sure,” he said. “Just figuring out ways to get different guys out — it’s just what we have to do in this game, especially against hitters you’re going to see four times.”
WORTH NOTING
The Pirates claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from Detroit.
UP NEXT
Pittsburgh RHP Domingo Germán (0-0, 6.11 ERA) makes his second start of the season against LHP Shota Imanaga (11-3, 3.14 ERA) on Wednesday night. The winning team takes the season series, which is knotted at 6-6.
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