Though outshined by Skenes, Lorenzen holds his own for Rockies

PITTSBURGH – The Rockies’ Michael Lorenzen has been pitching long enough to understand what little control he has over conditions that lead to the final result. But the game keeps offering reminders.

This time, Lorenzen had nothing to do with Pirates ace Paul Skenes not allowing a hit for 6 1/3 innings and pitching eight two-hit frames in the Rockies’ 3-1 loss at PNC Park. In other words, Lorenzen was as powerless as his team’s hitters.

Lorenzen, however, this time received numbers indicative of his performance – five innings, with two runs, five hits and five strikeouts, which meant his work was good enough that the Rockies at least had a chance in the ninth inning.

The statistical performance was a dramatic improvement over Lorenzen’s previous outing, when he yielded seven runs and 11 hits in five innings but was dogged by softly contacted balls falling for hits and runners scoring after he left the 10-5 loss to the Mets at Coors Field.

Lorenzen’s assessment of the previous start was met with eye rolls over the final numbers, but careful examination showed that the empirical data supported his assessment. This time, the fair assessment was that Lorenzen’s pitches were sharper than last time, and the statistics reflected that.

“It can be frustrating,” said Lorenzen, who will have to find those incremental improvements in his pitches in order to not be bitten by Coors Field (9.64 ERA to 4.26 on the road), since most of his games will be pitched there. “It can wear on your mind.

“You’ve got to show up and try to get better each and every time. This time around, I felt like I improved.”

What had no effect on Lorenzen’s psyche was being on the mound while Skenes fanned the first six Rockies en route to his 10 strikeouts.

“You notice it,” said Lorenzen, who pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies against the Nationals on Aug. 9, 2023. “You’re sitting here hoping that someone is able to break through and get a base hit so you can build some momentum and score some runs.

“It was so early in the game, pretty early to start thinking about the no-hitter and all that stuff. My job is just to keep it within striking distance.”

Jordan Beck’s two-out, ninth-inning double to end a 10-pitch at-bat against Gregory Soto, followed by Hunter Goodman’s double, brought the tying run to the plate before TJ Rumfield grounded out to end the game. But Lorenzen had to hang tough against Skenes to make even that possible.

“The breaking balls were good,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “He was attacking very, very well. His fastball maintained velocity the whole night. He was really good. He matched [Skenes].

“That’s what we expect from him.”

For Lorenzen, the route to better results is to trace the action of his myriad pitches. Interestingly, his favorite pitch – the changeup – worked to his satisfaction. The 88.4 mph exit velocity, with one hard-hit ball, on the pitch represents the soft contact that makes the pitch effective.

“I thought my changeup was great even though I didn’t get a ton of swings, but that’s just lineup-dependent,” said Lorenzen, who threw 21 changeups and got seven swings with one whiff. “Against a different type of lineup, the changeup performs really well, and it’s an even better outing.

“I made good pitches last time, as well. My stuff had a little more life today through the zone, and for the hitters the decision-making was a little harder today. Hopefully we can carry that through and turn some of those cheap hits into more swings and misses and more takes in the zone.”