MILWAUKEE -- Pirates phenom Paul Skenes looks like he could be a problem for the Brewers for a long time. There is no way around that.

But even after Skenes carved through seven hitless innings in his first career start against Milwaukee, a 1-0 Pirates win on Thursday afternoon at American Family Field, both of the Brewers’ All-Stars were left with the sinking feeling that it was an opportunity missed.

“He competes,” said Brewers catcher William Contreras. “We have to compete, too.”

Skenes, after all, piled up 63 pitches while logging seven of his 11 strikeouts in just the first three innings. Brewers manager Pat Murphy was already thinking ahead to a scenario in which they would have four innings of looks at Pittsburgh’s bullpen. Or, at worst, three.

Instead, Skenes adjusted and started pouring strikes into the zone, making it through the seventh before he was pulled at 99 pitches with a no-hit bid in the works. The Pirates didn’t finish that job, but their lone run off Milwaukee starter Aaron Civale was enough to deal the Brewers their first series loss at home since the final week of April.

“I actually thought we did a really good job against him today,” said Milwaukee’s other All-Star, Christian Yelich. “I think we could have done a better job of getting him out of the game sooner. I think we let him off the hook with some at-bats there at the end, where, if we extend him and kind of realize what was happening, we could have bought ourselves an extra inning or two [against the bullpen].”

That could have made a difference, because Skenes barely wobbled. He threw seven innings with no hits, one walk, one hit batsman and 11 strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 1.90 through 11 starts while continuing to electrify MLB, becoming the second pitcher in AL/NL history with multiple outings in a season of six-plus innings, no hits and 11-plus strikeouts.

The other was Nolan Ryan in 1973.

“His numbers don’t lie,” said Civale, who has already run into Skenes twice -- once with the Rays and now with the Brewers. “He’s good at what he does and he’s going to be doing it for a long time.”

When the Brewers got into the bullpen, Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell led off the eighth with successive singles against Colin Holderman, who loaded the bases with a walk but struck out Contreras to end Milwaukee’s only real threat.

Before that, only twice did the Brewers even sniff a hit against Skenes. There was Contreras’ close call in the bottom of the first inning, when Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz made a sensational play in the hole, and Contreras’ long fly ball in the third that hooked just a few seats foul of a homer. Contreras went on to become Skenes’ seventh strikeout victim in the first three innings alone.

At that point, the Brewers were optimistic about their chances.

“We’ve got a really young offensive team that’s been really good, but we have to be able to disrupt him,” Murphy said. “Once we get to 63 [pitches], we have to recognize it and ensure we get him to 100 and we can get him out of there by five, and then we can work on the bullpen for four innings. That’s much easier for anybody, especially a guy as good as him.

“We didn’t do that. We got him to 63, and we had a couple of innings where we just ran through, swinging early in the count. And it’s sensitive, because you think you get a pitch to hit, and maybe it’s the one pitch you get to hit. Hitting against this guy with two strikes is death, you know? There’s a two-edged sword there. It’s not as easy as just saying, ‘Well, we’ll run up the pitch count.’

“There’s an art to doing it. He recognized it, he made the adjustment. … All credit to him.”

Not to be forgotten was the home debut of Civale, who delivered 6 1/3 quality innings with only one run allowed. It scored in the top of the seventh after Pittsburgh’s Jack Suwinski beat out a fielder’s choice by a split second, and Yasmani Grandal followed with a double.

On a day the Brewers were held to a season-low two hits, that was enough.

“[Civale] did a great job. I wish we could have had his back a little bit more today,” Yelich said. “That’s baseball. It’s going to happen. You’re going to get ‘got’ some days.”