Everything Paul Skenes had to say After the Pirates Let him Down Again

After the Pittsburgh offense finally had a good game for Paul Skenes last week in a win over Arizona, it was more of the same last night at home against the Houston Astros. With his girlfriend Livvy Dunne in attendance, Paul pitched 8 innings allowing only three hits and one run, a nearly identical pitching performance to what he did against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 18th. Both of those pitching performances have something in common, they were both losses for Paul Skenes. Arguably the best pitcher is now 4-6.

After the game, Skenes was asked if he found himself thinking about things outside of his control. He said, “Yeah, maybe thinking about things outside of our control but I think at the end of the day, we all got here by controlling what we can control. I think that’s an acquired skill and [I’ve] got to get back to that. No matter what the situation is, if it’s in-game, pitch to pitch or you know large scale stuff, just got to control what you can control.”

Skenes was also asked how he handles the difference between the consistency of his pitching and the run game. He said, “Unfortunately, it’s baseball. 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.”

Paul talked about how he felt after giving up that one run. He said, “I’ve been in this position a few times, from [my time at] 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. 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.”

Finally, Paul was asked what needs to change with the offense. This was his response, “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.”

Watch the full press conference below at DKPittsburgh Sports.