PITTSBURGH -- Steven Brault has been an effective starter for the Pirates ever since they gave him a shot as a starter in May. In turn, his exit during Friday’s series opener against the Brewers at PNC Park may prove costly for the team’s rotation.

The club announced that Brault left the game in the fifth inning with left shoulder discomfort. Brault, who tossed four-plus innings and allowed one run on the night, faced Orlando Arcia to begin the inning. He issued a four-pitch walk before motioning with his glove for head athletic trainer Bryan Housand to come to the mound.

The left-hander motioned to his pitching shoulder as he talked with Housand and manager Clint Hurdle, and he promptly trotted off the mound.

"It was a little bit bothersome from the beginning,” Brault said after the 7-6, extra-innings loss. “Just had a hard time getting it loose today, and then came out for that fifth inning, it just wouldn't loosen up."

The 27-year-old said he hasn’t had any issues with the shoulder discomfort before today, and he said he felt he couldn’t put the team in the best position to win by staying out there with the nagging sensation.

“As you go throughout the season, you kind of get ups and downs and feelings of your arm and stuff,” Brault said, “And just today, it was … it just didn’t get where I wanted it to be.”

The Pirates moved Brault to the starting rotation on May 29, and since then, he’s been exceptional. Factoring in the four-plus innings of work he threw on Friday, Brault, who opened the season as a long reliever, has put up a 2.04 ERA over seven starts in that span.

With the continued absence of Jameson Taillon, who plans to play catch this weekend, the Pirates rotation will likely need Minor League reinforcements if the discomfort leads to a lengthy absence for Brault. The silver lining is that the All-Star break begins after Sunday’s series finale with the Brewers, giving him more than a week to rest and recover before the team considers his next start.

For now, Brault is going to take the next couple of days to heal and then he and the club will reevaluate the injury.

“It’s kind of convenient we’ve got the All-Star break coming up,” Brault said. “It was going to be a longer break in starts anyways, so we can kind of roll with it and see what happens.”