The next time Paul Skenes pitches in a game after today will likely be in Arlington for Tuesday's All-Star Game, where we are quite sure he will be featured for at least an inning. Skenes has proven as good as advertised with his 2.12 ERA thru ten starts, and now he's working into the 8th inning in recent outings. Opponent scorelines are telling; Skenes has only allowed five runs across his last five starts, but the flip side is the Pirates' offense, save for a couple of unexpected explosions in recent weeks, remains decidedly pedestrian. Milwaukee's recently-added Aaron Civale likely hands off a close, low-scoring game to his bullpen, and another Skenes-influenced scoreline stays low this afternoon in Brew Town. Play Pirates-Brewers "Under"

Milwaukee is 23 and 7 in their last 30 games at home after a 5-7 start. They go for their 10th series win at home but they have Paul Skenes in the way. Skenes, a rookie, is going to the All-Star game for good reason. He's got 11.8 strikeouts per 9 innings. The mismatch here is the pitcher for the Brewers, Aaron Civale, who gives up a ton of runs against Skenes who doesn't give up anything. Pirates win first five.

Paul Skenes has a 2.12 ERA and has only allowed one or zero earned runs in six of his last nine starts. The Brewers have never seen him and for someone with this kind of sick stuff that means a very difficult situation. Plus, he's gone over 100 pitches in back-to-back games and it's possible the Pirates will want to keep his workload down in this one. That means something like five innings and not enough times for the Brewers to get to him. I'm expecting zero runs allowed.

The amazing Paul Skenes has gone at least six in eight of his 10 outings so far and is 2-0 with a 1.11 ERA in four road starts. No weather concerns in Milwaukee and the Brewers haven't seen him. That the AS break is upcoming -- and if Skenes dominates here, he might start for the NL -- in theory should allow Skenes to throw a few more pitches than normal.

It's hard not to bac Paul Skenes, who has taken the league by storm since his promotion from AAA. The Pirates are 7-3 when he starts and 3-1 on the road. Getting out of his home bandbox is huge for Skenes, who does struggle with the longball there but the rate plummets on the road. His road ERA is 1.11, opponents bat .169 off him and his WHIP Is 0.74. During the day, his stuff should play up, especially that that splunker. Aaron Civale had a lost season for the Rays and while the NL has treated him a little kinder thus far, he still leaves much to be desired. I'm not going RL here because the Bucs didn't hit him much in earlier start.