{"id":62236,"date":"2025-07-13T12:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T12:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/62236\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T12:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T12:36:11","slug":"paul-skenes-tarik-skubal-share-mutual-respect-despite-different-paths-to-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/62236\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal share mutual respect despite different paths to stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month in Detroit, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes started opposite ends of a doubleheader for the second year in a row<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both pitchers seemed interested in facing each other in the same game. Both are competitors who revel in the adrenaline of such challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like going against the game\u2019s best,\u201d Skubal said.<\/p>\n

It did not work out that way. Skubal started Game 1. The Pirates pitched Skenes in Game 2.<\/p>\n

But the baseball gods, it turns out, will orchestrate this matchup in a different setting.<\/p>\n

Skubal and Skenes will be the starting pitchers for their respective leagues in Tuesday\u2019s All-Star Game. The decision became official Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

For as much as these two pitchers relish competition, they also share mutual respect.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a complete bulldog out there,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cYou talk about predator versus prey \u2014 he\u2019s the predator. Just always attacking, just attacking the strike zone with his stuff. I think that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skenes and Skubal are two of the sport\u2019s 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 \u2014 both serve on the MLB Players Association\u2019s executive subcommittee; both have six-letter last names starting with \u201cSk\u201d \u2014 they are also different pitchers who have taken different paths to the top of their craft.<\/p>\n

Skenes was once an Air Force cadet<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelfishly, I\u2019m glad that I\u2019m not pitching so I can kind of dial in and watch him,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cAs much as I play the game, I\u2019m just as big a fan as probably anyone else. So I\u2019ll be able to watch, and hopefully we tag him up a little bit, but his stuff is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skenes, for the record, went six innings but walked five batters and surrendered two earned runs against the Tigers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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)<\/p>\n

Skubal, meanwhile, is from a small town in Arizona<\/a>. 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\u2019 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 \u2014 he gave up 44 home runs in his first 39 MLB outings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say my career started the same way his did,\u201d Skubal said of Skenes.<\/p>\n

Then, just as Skubal began to find his footing, flexor tendon surgery cost him nearly a full year.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously do it differently,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cHe has probably a couple less pitches than I do and uses his stuff differently. But there\u2019s definitely stuff to learn from him, with how he uses all his pitches together. It\u2019s fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Skenes\u2019 Pirates are in last place with a 38-58 record and a murky future. Skenes pitches to every batter with his team\u2019s life on the line. He has a 2.01 ERA and has been worth 4.8 bWAR but somehow has a 4-8 record.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Skenes leads qualified starting pitchers with a 2.01 ERA. (Charles LeClaire \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Skubal is married to his high school sweetheart. He hasn\u2019t graced the covers of magazines or appeared on late-night shows like Skenes, but he has grown into his personality: open, accessible and engaging.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way he carries himself is great,\u201d Skubal said of Skenes. \u201cI\u2019ve ran into him a couple times. The head on his shoulders, he\u2019s very mature, he knows his routine, he\u2019s bought into what makes him good. I feel like he\u2019s always trying to get better at something. It shows with who he is on the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In two distinct ways, these aces have become appointment viewing for baseball fans everywhere.<\/p>\n

And now, finally, they will square off \u2014 even if only for an inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the stars to be on the field for the product to be good and to make fans want to come to the yard,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cSo yeah, it\u2019s great for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Roy Rochlin \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month in Detroit, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes started opposite ends of a doubleheader for the second…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":62237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1885,1266,1886,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-62236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-detroit-tigers","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114845960416996419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}