Paul Skenes, Pirates scared off Jacob Misiorowski in final game before All-Star Break

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a rather productive day on Saturday. The big-league club swept a doubleheader over the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, while the front office made five selections to kick off the 2026 MLB Draft. Oh, and they dealt away the 34th overall pick (and Triple-A pitcher Jaden Woods) just before the event began.

How they choose to round out the rest of their incoming class remains to be seen, but we do already know one headliner for Sunday. In their finale against the Crew, the Buccos will counter Jacob Misiorowski with Paul Skenes.

Well, at least, they were supposed to. Instead, Miz is skipping the start following a bout with fatigue.

In his place, Robert Gasser will take the bump. Though this is a disappointing bit of news if you wanted to watch two of the best pitchers in the game square off, at least the stars are aligning for the Pirates to close out the first half with a sweep of their division rivals.

Paul Skenes must take advantage of Jacob Misiorowski's fatigue and guide Pirates to sweep

The Pirates scored 10 runs in their two games on Saturday, especially putting the hurt on Brandon Sproat and star reliever Aaron Ashby. Esmerlyn Valdez supplied six RBI in that outing behind two homers, after which he added another blast (and two more RBIs) in the nightcap. He had a ridiculous 471 wRC+ for the day and continued to keep the momentum in his impressive rookie season.

Was that enough to scare Misiorowski off? The fatigue issue is a real concern for someone who throws as hard as he does, though the Pirates' hot bats certainly weren't an appealing matchup for his final act of the first half.

The real reason this development stinks is that now we're all being deprived of a Skenes-Miz clash and neither pitcher will go in the All-Star Game. Alas, all we can hope for now is a Skenes masterclass to send the Pirates into the All-Star Break on a high note.

The right-hander hasn't been his usual dominant self recently — he's allowed multiple runs in each of his last six starts and eight of his last ten — though even this diminished version of Skenes is a worthy All-Star rocking a 3.58 ERA and 2.98 FIP. If he can continue his career-long domination of the Brewers (2.89 ERA in five starts) on Sunday, then the Pirates will be in excellent position to close out the first half with win No. 50 on the year.

A sweep would also lower the deficit in the division below double digits, which could give the Pirates a genuine breath of life heading into trade season.

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