Skenes unsure how Pirates solve hitting woes: 'Wish I had the answer'

Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes isn't getting the run support he needs, but the ace doesn't know how to fix the issue.

Skenes pitched eight innings of three-hit ball with eight strikeouts against the Houston Astros on Tuesday. However, his only blemish, a Christian Walker solo home run in the seventh, led to his sixth loss of the campaign.

When asked about what has to change to improve Pittsburgh's 20-16 record over his 36 career starts, Skenes replied, "I'm not sure, that's a good question," per Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"I wish I had the answer for it," he continued following the 3-0 loss Tuesday. "We've just got to score one more run than them. I don't really know."

The Pirates have been blanked in three of the right-hander's starts this season and are 5-8 when he takes the mound, even though he's authored a 2.05 ERA and leads the league in WHIP and hits allowed per nine innings. Pittsburgh has scored the second-fewest runs in the majors, one more than the bottom-dwelling Colorado Rockies.

Yet Skenes believes it's just a matter of time before the Pirates' offense figures things out.

"We definitely got off to a slow start. Statistically, there have to be better days ahead, right? Just statistically speaking, that's how it's going to work," Skenes said.

"We're seeing growth, I think. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. We have a lot of guys that are going to figure it out because they have the makeup to figure it out."

The Pirates are 17 games below .500 and sit last in the NL Central.