By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Call it an appetizer to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
And it could end up being the real Midsummer Classic.
Two of the hottest young pitchers in MLB will square off at 11:15 a.m. Sunday on Peacock and the NBC Sports Network with 2025 National League Cy Young winner and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes (7-8, 3.58 ERA) of Pittsburgh facing Milwaukee second-year phenom and 105 mph flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski (10-4, 1.62 ERA) at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on the last day before the All-Star break.
The two, 24-year-old right-handers each made the All-Star team last week for Tuesday night’s game (7 p.m., FOX), but with both scheduled to pitch on Sunday, they have since been replaced on the All-Star roster. Pittsburgh is above .500 and out of last place for a change at fourth in the NL Central at 47-45, while Milwaukee leads the NL Central at 58-33 after winning the Central last year before losing the NL Championship Series to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
From The Vault: Why Paul Skenes should’ve been Born On The Fourth of July:https://t.co/ntZ3UzaaUM
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) July 3, 2026
This will be the second Skenes-Misiorowski duel. Misiorowski beat Skenes, 4-2, last season in Milwaukee in a five-inning shutout in which he allowed two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. Skenes gave up four runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts in four innings.
Skenes, the first player picked in the 2023 MLB Draft who is in his third MLB season, just beat Atlanta, 12-4, on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh to break a losing skid of six straight decisions and earned his first win since May 12. He allowed two runs on eight hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
“It’s great. Great to help the team win and can’t wait to Sunday,” Skenes said after the game. “Throughout the past stretch, there have been a couple kind of clunky outings. Just got some runs put up earlier and made my life easier. Just kind of felt good coming out of the bullpen and kind of rode it for a while.”
Skenes’ average fastball velocity was back up to 97 mph after dipping to 94 in his last outing – the worst of his career last week.
In a 10-6 loss at on July 1, Skenes allowed six hits and seven earned runs with a pair of home runs in four innings around two walks and a hit batsman with five strikeouts. His spin rate also climbed back to 2,150 revolutions per minute (RPM) from a dip to the 1900s earlier in the season after hanging around 2,300 in his first two seasons. He is sixth in MLB with 123 strikeouts in 103 innings with 23 walks.
Misiorowski, a second round pick in 2022 and in his second MLB season, has not been “clunky” much this season. He has struck out an MLB-high 167 batters in 111 innings with 27 walks and has been averaging 100 mph per pitch. He set the MLB record at 105 mph this season.
At 6-foot-7 and 201 pounds, Misiorowski has hit 100 mph or higher an MLB record 626 times this season. Pitch speed tracking began in 2008. He struck out 11 and allowed three runs and no walks in seven innings for a three-hit, 4-3 victory at St. Louis on Tuesday with 57 pitches at 100 mph or higher.
Skenes, who is 6-6 and 260 pounds, hit 100 mph or higher 228 times in his first two seasons, but has not touched 100 this season and is averaging 97.
And to think, they could have been on the same LSU team in 2023.
Misiorowski, who is from Blue Springs, Missouri, near Kansas City, committed to transfer to LSU after his 2022 season at Crowder Junior College in Neosho, Missouri, when he was 10-0 with a 2.72 ERA and 136 strikeouts in 76 innings. But after averaging 99.8 mph at an MLB Combine that summer, the Brewers took him in the second round of the draft and paid him $2.35 million.
Skenes, a native of Lake Forest, California, went 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA and a nation-leading 209 strikeouts in 2023 after transferring from Air Force.
“Fun to think about if they would have been here together,” LSU coach Jay Johnson told Tiger Rag on Wednesday.
Particularly if projected 2023 LSU starter Grant Taylor had not injured his elbow just before the season opener and missed the entire season with Tommy John surgery. He was still drafted in the second round in 2023 by the Chicago White Sox and debuted last season. He is 4-2 with three saves and a 2.96 ERA this season.
After Skenes in 2023, the rotation mainly had Ty Floyd (7-0, 4.35 ERA, one save) and Thatcher Hurd (8-3, 5.68 ERA, three saves).
“If Paul and Jacob would have been here together, and Grant Taylor would have stayed healthy, we would have had the greatest college baseball rotation ever,” Johnson said.
Skenes announced he would transfer to LSU from Air Force on July 28, 2022.
On July 15, 2022, Johnson and his staff hosted Misiorowski at LSU – two days before the MLB Draft.
“It was pretty consensus he was going to sign and go to pro ball,” Johnson said. “But we fought until the end, because we knew he would be special.”
Be the first to comment