Last month in Detroit, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes started opposite ends of a doubleheader for the second year in a row.

Both pitchers seemed interested in facing each other in the same game. Both are competitors who revel in the adrenaline of such challenges.

“I like going against the game’s best,” Skubal said.

It did not work out that way. Skubal started Game 1. The Pirates pitched Skenes in Game 2.

But the baseball gods, it turns out, will orchestrate this matchup in a different setting.

Skubal and Skenes will be the starting pitchers for their respective leagues in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. The decision became official Saturday evening.

For as much as these two pitchers relish competition, they also share mutual respect.

Minutes after the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers in extra innings, Skenes stood in the visiting clubhouse at Comerica Park and raved about the other ace down the hall.

“He’s just a complete bulldog out there,” Skenes said. “You talk about predator versus prey — he’s the predator. Just always attacking, just attacking the strike zone with his stuff. I think that’s why he was able to go complete game in like 94 pitches (May 25), with 13 punchouts, too. Just attacking the zone with his stuff and truly pitching.”

Skenes and Skubal are two of the sport’s most captivating players, the kind of old-school aces who can control the game and command an audience while doing it. Despite their similar profiles — both serve on the MLB Players Association’s executive subcommittee; both have six-letter last names starting with “Sk” — they are also different pitchers who have taken different paths to the top of their craft.

Skenes was once an Air Force cadet who transferred to LSU and rocketed to the top of draft boards. He was a No. 1 pick, a physically gifted specimen who dominated in the big leagues from the jump. He pitched six no-hit innings in the second outing of his career.

When Skubal and Skenes did not match up this season in Detroit, Skubal acknowledged he would savor the entertainment value of watching Skenes pitch from the bench.

“Selfishly, I’m glad that I’m not pitching so I can kind of dial in and watch him,” Skubal said. “As much as I play the game, I’m just as big a fan as probably anyone else. So I’ll be able to watch, and hopefully we tag him up a little bit, but his stuff is pretty good.”

Skenes, for the record, went six innings but walked five batters and surrendered two earned runs against the Tigers.

After winning the American League pitching triple crown in 2024, Tarik Skubal has arguably been even better this season. (Junfu Han / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Skubal, meanwhile, is from a small town in Arizona. He attended Seattle University, the lone Division I program to offer him a scholarship. He had Tommy John surgery in college and tumbled to the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft. He quickly asserted himself as a force in the Tigers’ system but struggled in his indoctrination to the major leagues. He had a 5.63 ERA in his rookie season in 2020. He could be prone to elevated pitch counts and loud contact — he gave up 44 home runs in his first 39 MLB outings.

“I can’t say my career started the same way his did,” Skubal said of Skenes.

Then, just as Skubal began to find his footing, flexor tendon surgery cost him nearly a full year.

While everyone in baseball fears the injury risk for a dominant pitcher like Skenes, Skubal has already endured the comebacks from such injuries.

Skenes is a right-handed maestro with a swiveling delivery and a seven-pitch arsenal. His fastball averages 98.3 mph. His so-called splinker mesmerizes hitters.

Skubal throws from the left side with an imposing leg kick, coming at you all limbs, with a white sphere suddenly emerging from nowhere. He has a dominant fastball and throws first-pitch strikes at the second-best rate of any pitcher in the game. But this year, he uses his changeup more than his four-seamer. The changeup is a phenomenon of seam-shifted wake that tails away from right-handed hitters and leaves batters swinging through air 48.5 percent of the time.

“We obviously do it differently,” Skenes said. “He has probably a couple less pitches than I do and uses his stuff differently. But there’s definitely stuff to learn from him, with how he uses all his pitches together. It’s fun to watch.”

Skubal came up when the Tigers were locked in a dreadful rebuild. But as he has soared, so has his team. Detroit has a 59-37 record, the best mark in all of baseball.

Skenes’ Pirates are in last place with a 38-58 record and a murky future. Skenes pitches to every batter with his team’s life on the line. He has a 2.01 ERA and has been worth 4.8 bWAR but somehow has a 4-8 record.

Paul Skenes leads qualified starting pitchers with a 2.01 ERA. (Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)

Skubal is married to his high school sweetheart. He hasn’t graced the covers of magazines or appeared on late-night shows like Skenes, but he has grown into his personality: open, accessible and engaging.

Skenes has a mega-influencer girlfriend he met in college. But for all his celebrity, he still carries himself like an Air Force cadet: serious with a dry sense of humor, obsessed with being excellent.

“I think the way he carries himself is great,” Skubal said of Skenes. “I’ve ran into him a couple times. The head on his shoulders, he’s very mature, he knows his routine, he’s bought into what makes him good. I feel like he’s always trying to get better at something. It shows with who he is on the mound.”

Last winter, the two pitchers sat next to each other at the BBWAA awards banquet, where Skubal was named winner of the American League Cy Young Award and Skenes won National League Rookie of the Year. Comedian Tracy Morgan was seated between them.

In two distinct ways, these aces have become appointment viewing for baseball fans everywhere.

And now, finally, they will square off — even if only for an inning.

“We need the stars to be on the field for the product to be good and to make fans want to come to the yard,” Skubal said. “So yeah, it’s great for everyone involved.”

(Top photo: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images)