Happy Skenes vs. Misiorowski Day! Today’s rubber match against the Pirates features two of the most exciting young pitchers in baseball.
Most of you know how good Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes has been since making his debut. The second-year flamethrower is one of the best pitchers in the game. He started the All-Star Game as a rookie last year, won Rookie of the Year, and received down-ballot MVP votes. This year, Skenes has the lowest ERA (1.85) and WHIP (0.882) amongst qualifying starting pitchers league-wide. He also leads the NL in bWAR (4.4) and innings pitched (102).
Jacob Misiorowski has only made two starts in the big leagues, but he’s been just as electric. The 6’7” right-hander didn’t allow a hit in his first eleven innings as a Brewer, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning in his second start. He sports a 1.67 ERA and 0.55 WHIP going into today’s game, having allowed just one hit all season.
Hits may be hard to come by today for either team, but Milwaukee will at least have momentum on their side. The Crew’s offense has been remarkably, consistently good over the last week — scoring at least eight runs in five of their last six games.
Due to the recent success of the Brewers’ offense, today’s lineup looks mostly the same. The top of the order consists of Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, and Christian Yelich — business as usual. William Contreras gets the day off at catcher in favor of Eric Haase, so Rhys Hoskins slides up to the cleanup spot. Isaac Collins, riding an eight-game hitting streak into today’s game, will hit fifth.
Collins is followed by Brice Turang and Caleb Durbin. Don’t look now, but Durbin is hitting .321 in his last seven games. Bringing up the bottom of the order is Joey Ortiz, who homered twice yesterday, and Haase. Skenes will be a tough test, but hopefully the Brewers’ lineup can keep building momentum.
Today’s game will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.