How Brewers Will Make MLB History With Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes Matchups
As if being in last place in the NL Central despite having a 13-10 record wasn't irritating enough, the Milwaukee Brewers get the unenviable task of facing arguably the two best pitchers in MLB on back-to-back days.
With Tarik Skubal scheduled to start for the Detroit Tigers on Thursday and Paul Skenes slated to go for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday, the Brewers are set to make history as just the second team in MLB history to face both reigning Cy Young winners in consecutive games.
Interestingly, you don't have to go back far to find the first time this happened. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com noted the 2025 Boston Red Sox had to face Skubal and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves in back-to-back games.
One difference is the Red Sox at least had a day off in between their May 14 game against Detroit and May 16 game against Atlanta. It didn't help because they lost both games, though they did get to Skubal for five runs and seven hits over 6.1 innings.
The Brewers haven't had a lot of issues scoring runs so far. They enter play on Thursday ranked eighth in MLB with 120 runs and tied for eighth with a 103 wRC+.
They also have a claim to being as successful as any team in MLB against Skenes since he debuted in 2024. His 3.86 ERA in four career starts against the Brewers is the second-highest against any team (New York Mets: 5.27).
Skenes had four starts last season in which he allowed at least four earned runs. Two of them were against the Brewers.
It's been a much different story for the Brewers against Skubal, though it has only been two games. He has a 0.66 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 13.2 innings. The two-time AL Cy Young winner tossed seven shutout innings against Milwaukee on April 14, 2025.
