Maybe it was just the pall of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season ending in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, but Thursday afternoon’s Pirates game against the St. Louis Cardinals certainly had a negative hockey feel to it.

For instance, Paul Skenes appeared to be doing his best Tristan Jarry impersonation.

Instead of “first shot-first goal” like we used to see from the former Pens goalie all the time, we saw “first batter-first homer” allowed from the Bucs’ ace.

That came courtesy of Mars native JJ Wetherholt.

Things went badly enough in the first inning from that point, I was expecting Flyers defenseman Cam York to step up to the plate and go yard too.

Then maybe throw his bat into the stands.

St. Louis’ Jordan Walker did the honors instead.

Skenes’ tattered first inning featured three hits, two homers, three strikeouts and 25 pitches.

“The fastball wasn’t where it typically is with him,” manager Don Kelly said. “A couple of the pitches, like the one Walker hit, looked like a sweeper that didn’t break. I didn’t think he had his best stuff today.”

That pattern continued the rest of the way for Skenes. The right-hander allowed two additional runs (one aided by a throwing error from Konnor Griffin) and five more hits while racking up a total of nine strikeouts against no walks and a wild pitch. He lasted only five innings and threw 102 pitches to get there.

He suffered his second loss of the season (4-2) as the Cards went on to win 10-5. It was the fifth straight loss for the Pirates.

“Nothing different than any other outing,” Skenes said of his approach to the game. “It was a little bit frustrating that we couldn’t put a stop to (the streak).”

For Skenes, it was his first rough stint on the mound in April. In his previous five starts last month, the reigning Cy Young winner had given up just three runs over 28⅓ innings.

“At the beginning of the outing, I just didn’t have the best command of everything the first couple of innings,” Skenes said. “I settled in a little bit and did a pretty good job the last few innings. I just had to grind through a little bit.”

Most importantly, Skenes failed in his most important duty: being the stopper. As the ace of the team, when things are going badly, it’s incumbent on him to do whatever he can to stop the bleeding — should some exist.

Well, since Skenes’ last outing — seven innings of shutout ball en route to a 6-0 Bucs win in Milwaukee — the Pirates have been hemorrhaging. This time, Skenes couldn’t apply a tourniquet.

“Paul Skenes is unbelievable,” Kelly said. “I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that he’s in his third year. The expectations are so high for him. Nobody expects more out of Paul Skenes than Paul does out of himself. I think when he has a game like (this) or the opener (in New York when he didn’t get out of the first inning), we need to find a way to pick him up because he picks us up all the time.”

For the most part in 2026, Skenes hasn’t had to put out a fire for the team. Prior to this five-game slide, the Pirates hadn’t lost multiple games in a row since the first two of the season in New York against the Mets.

Now they’ve gone the whole way through the rotation without being able to get back on the rails. Mitch Keller will be the starter attempting to do that Friday when the Cincinnati Reds make their first visit to PNC Park of 2026. His most recent appearance, starting a 6-3 10-inning win in Milwaukee on Saturday, was the last win the Pirates recorded.

“Every spring training, it’s never like, ‘Hey, if we hit adversity this year …’ It’s when we hit adversity. It’s a long year. It’s a marathon,” outfield Jake Mangum said. “We played good ball up until this last little stretch. I have no doubt in my mind that we are going to get out of it quickly. Someone is going to have a big swing or a big pitch that gets us out of it. We’re just going to start rolling again.”

It would help if the gloves gave Keller a little help. Griffin’s error was the only one that registered in the scorebook on Thursday. But Bryan Reynolds also had a poor throw and lost a ball in the lights on a play that was counted as a hit. Nick Gonzales was charged with a first-inning error that was eventually changed to a hit.

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“We’ve got to play better baseball. We’ve got to hit better. Defend better. Pitch better,” first baseman Spencer Horwitz said. “It starts with everyone. We need to clean it up. This series should be a wake-up call.”

If it isn’t, the standings should be. At 16-16, the Pirates are in last place of the National League Central.

Now that the wake-up call has been heard, the Pirates better not hit snooze. The Reds are coming to town this weekend. They are 20-11 and sit atop the of the N.L. Central. Manager Terry Francona and company have won nine of their last 12. They are excellent on the road, having won 10 times in 13 tries away from home.

If the Pirates are still groggy from what happened against the Cardinals, the Reds will put them right back to sleep.

With the Penguins done and the NFL Draft finally over, this is a time when the Pirates could be seizing the city’s interest. It’d be horrible timing to encourage all of us to sleep on them as well.

Listen: Tim Benz and Jeff Erickson host this week’s fantasy sports podcast as they discuss Paul Skenes, the N.L. Central and the NFL Draft