By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Former LSU ace Paul Skenes won his second straight decision on Sunday for the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-5, over the National League Central leading Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park in Pittsburgh after six straight decision losses.
Skenes (8-8, 3.57 ERA) allowed two runs on three hits and struck out seven with one walk in five and a third innings for the victory. The victory completed a three-game sweep of the Central defending champion Brewers (59-37) by Pittsburgh and cut Milwaukee’s lead over the fourth place Pirates (50-47) to 9.5 games going into the All-Star break. Pittsburgh swept a doubleheader Saturday. Last year at this time, the Pirates were 39-58 and 18.5 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs.
Skenes was scheduled for a nationally televised duel on Sunday with Milwaukee fireballing phenom and former LSU commitment Jacob Misiorowski (10-4, 1.62 ERA), who leads Major League Baseball in strikeouts with 167 and most pitches at 100 mph or higher this season with an MLB record 670. He also is averaging an MLB-high 100.5 mph average on his fastball.
But Misiorowski was scratched on Saturday due to, naturally, arm fatigue. And Skenes beat Robert Gasser (2-4) instead as the Pirates put up seven runs on eight hits off him in three innings.
“His arm doesn’t feel great. His body doesn’t feel great,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, a former Notre Dame and Arizona State head coach, told reporters on Saturday. “There’s no imaging or none of that stuff going on. We’re just giving him a rest, and he needs some time away from throwing. He’s had a big load, and we’re making that decision to give him a break, because his throwing program today was a little clunky, and we just didn’t like what we saw and we’re going to hold him out.”
Misiorowski, who is expected to start again after the All-Star break, could have been in the same rotation with Skenes in 2023 after committing to LSU coach Jay Johnson in 2022. But he later entered the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft instead and went in the second round to Milwaukee. He and Skenes were both named last week to the All-Star Game Tuesday night (7 p.m., FOX) in Philadelphia, but each pulled out partly because of the Sunday duel.
“It stinks to miss a start and the All-Star Game, but I know it’s the right thing to do in this situation,” Misiorowski said Sunday. “My arm is a little tired.”
Asked about missing a chance to pitch against Skenes again, Misiorowski said, “Even if I were pitching against someone off the street, I’d be disappointed not to pitch. “It doesn’t matter who I’m pitching against.”
Misiorowski leads Skenes, 1-0, as he beat him, 4-2, on June 25, 2025, 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.
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
Skenes is fifth in strikeouts this season with 130 in 108 and a third innings with 24 walks. Misiorowski has his 167 in 111 innings with 27 walks.
The Pirates have been notorious for not scoring runs for Skenes, but they made up for that Sunday with 14 runs on 15 hits, including two homers and seven extra-base hits in all.
“It makes it hard to lose when you score 14 runs,” Skenes said. “That’s nice. we should do that a lot.”
Pittsburgh showed the same power in Skenes’ previous win over Atlanta, 12-4, last week as Ryan O’Hearn hit three home runs with a grand slam and two three-run bolts for 10 RBIs that set the Pittsburgh club record in the Pirates’ 14-hit attack.
“And it was very democratic this time,” Skenes said. “Wasn’t just Ryan, so, got to point that out. Kinda wish we didn’t have an All-star break at this point. It’s been fun. We’ll keep it rolling. It’s going to be a fun year.”
Skenes started the last two All-Star games, but will be watching this one.
“Just be able to take a couple of days off and relax,” he said. “Can’t wait to see what happens in the second half.”
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