In the end, the decisions were not particularly difficult. Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes will start the All-Star Game for the National League. Detroit Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal will start for the American League.
The choices were revealed Saturday on Fox, which will broadcast the game in Atlanta on Tuesday night. Skenes, 23, will be the youngest pitcher to start back-to-back All-Star Games. Skubal, 28, will be making his second straight appearance. Both pitched a scoreless inning in last year’s game.
Skenes and Skubal entered Friday ranked 1-2 in the majors in ERA. Skubal dropped to fourth overall, and second in the AL behind the Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown, after taking his first loss since April 2 on Friday night against the Seattle Mariners.
The AL choices to start the All-Star Game narrowed considerably in recent days. Brown, scheduled to start Sunday, was replaced by the Minnesota Twins’ Joe Ryan. The New York Yankees’ Max Fried, Texas Rangers’ Jacob deGrom and Boston Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet, ranked third, fourth and fifth in the league in ERA, all were scheduled to start Saturday, and also were dropped from the AL roster after requesting not to pitch in the game.
Skenes’ biggest competition in the NL, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, also bowed out, saying he wanted to prepare for the second half. Wheeler, 35, is a native of the Atlanta area who might have been a sentimental choice to start the game. He leads the NL in opponents’ OPS and is second to Skenes in ERA.
Prior to Skenes, the youngest pitcher to start back-to-back All-Star Games was the Philadelphia Phillies’ Robin Roberts, who started in 1950 and ‘51 at ages 23 and 24, according to STATS Perform. And while Skenes’ record is only 4-8, that is largely a product of his average run support, which is the third worst in the majors.
Skubal has struck out 153 and walked only 16, a ratio that leads the majors by a wide margin. He led the AL in ERA at the break last season, but was bypassed for the All-Star start in favor of Corbin Burnes, who was then with the Baltimore Orioles. This season, the Tigers own the best record in the majors at 59-36, and Skubal will be one of their six All-Star representatives.
Skenes and Skubal might not pitch more than an inning Tuesday night, but the imprint they are leaving on the game is indelible. While the first two letters of their last names are the same, the paths they took to the majors could not have been more different.
Skenes went undrafted out of high school after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled his senior season at El Toro (Calif.) H.S. He began his college career at the Air Force Academy, where he was both a catcher and pitcher. In 2022 won the John Olerud Award as the best two-way player in the country.
Prior to his junior season, Skenes transferred to LSU, where he emerged as one of the top pitching prospects in the sport’s history. After leading LSU to the College World Series title, where he was named Most Outstanding Player, the Pirates selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2023.
Tarik Skubal enters the All-Star break with a 10-3 record and 2.23 ERA, along with 153 strikeouts. (Lon Horwedel / Imagn Images)
Skubal, who also was undrafted out of high school, took a far longer path to stardom. A native of Kingman, Ariz., the only NCAA Division I school to offer him a scholarship was Seattle University. After he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2016, the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the 29th round of the 2017 draft. Skubal declined to sign, returned to Seattle and in 2018 became the Tigers’ ninth-round selection — and 255th overall.
By 2020, he was in the majors. In 2022, he appeared on the verge of a breakout when he underwent another surgery, this time to repair a flexor tendon. His rehabilitation lasted 11 months. But Skubal excelled after his return in July 2023, and in 2024 became one of the best pitchers in the game, winning the American League Cy Young Award.
Skubal and Skenes became acquainted in January at the Baseball Writers Association of America dinner in New York, where Skenes also was honored as the NL Rookie of the Year. They both are members of the players’ leadership arm, the Major League Baseball Players Association’s executive subcommittee. They pitched at opposite ends of a doubleheader on May 29, 2024, but never actually competed in the same game.
That will change Tuesday night, in baseball’s showcase event of the summer, when two of the best pitchers in the sport take center stage.
(Top photo of Paul Skenes: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
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