There's an old adage in baseball—and in life: Control what you can control.

Pittsburgh Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes ascribes to that belief. But in the aftermath of the Pirates' 1-0 loss to the Philadephia Phillies on Sunday, a game in which Skenes yielded just one run in eight innings pitched, the 22-year-old admitted that striving to do so has been "difficult" lately.

"Not everything is within any other individual in here's power," Skenes said when asked if it's been difficult to see strong results not leading to team wins. "That's how we get going a little bit. Just control what we can control on an individual level. That's been my focus. That's always been my focus."

"That's probably been a little bit more difficult this last month or so, but there's nowhere else to go but to keep going. Just got to keep going."

A Phillies run, scored on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the fifth inning, was all Skenes permitted. But it was all Philadelphia needed against the Pirates lineup, which was blanked by Phillies starter Mick Abel, who tossed six shutout innings in his big league debut.

Unfortunately, the Pirates' spoiling a stellar Skenes start is nothing new. Sunday's game marked the sixth time Pittsburgh has lost when Skenes has allowed one run or fewer in a start, according to Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan.

It's enough to make a man look like this.

The juxtaposition of the Pirates' lack of success vs. Skenes's brilliance is simply astounding—and has to be contributing to the young ace's helpless feeling. Above all, Skenes feels a responsibility to the city of Pittsburgh to reverse the fortunes of the Pirates, who have endured six straight losing seasons.

Thus far, the Pirates (15-32) sit in last place in the National League Central and earlier in May fired manager Derek Shelton. It's all happened despite Skenes's best efforts on the mound—he's tied for fifth among all pitchers in WAR in '25.

It's not hard to see why he'd feel a bit frustrated. And he's not the only one.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Paul Skenes Admits It's Been 'Difficult' Dealing With Pirates' Recent Struggles.

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