Pirates 2025 Schedule: Fans get Paul Skenes vs. Aaron Judge matchup early

With just one day remaining before the 2024 season is set to resume following the All-Star break, Major League Baseball released the schedule for the 2025 season in rather unceremonious fashion.

MLB's midday announcement included key dates for a number of marquee league events, including a season-opening series in Tokyo between the Pittsburgh Pirates' NL Central rivals, the Chicago Cubs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers from March 18-19.

MLB's traditional Opening Day will come later in the month on March 27 – the earliest Opening Day in MLB history – featuring a 15-game slate with all 30 clubs in action. For the second year in a row, the Pirates will start their season with a four-game series in Miami, where rookie pitching phenom Paul Skenes could make the first Opening Day start of his young career against the Marlins at loanDepot Park.

From there, the Pirates will head northwest to Tampa Bay for a three-game series against the Rays before heading back to Pittsburgh to kick off their home schedule.

Fans get Paul Skenes vs. Aaron Judge All-Star rematch early as Pirates host Yankees in 2025 home opener

The real fun will begin when the Pirates welcome the New York Yankees to PNC Park for a three-game series. On top of it being the first time in history that Pittsburgh has hosted a home opener against the Yankees, the series will likely feature a rematch between Skenes and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.

The two faced off against one another for the first time in a highly-anticipated matchup at the 2024 MLB All-Star Game Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Texas. The matchup itself was rather anticlimactic, as Judge grounded out on the first pitch he faced, but it was still a duel between generational talents that left fans thirsty for more.

After the Yankees series, the Pirates will host their NL Central rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, for their first divisional series of the season.

The first half of the Pirates' season will wind down with a challenging stretch of inter-league road series against against the Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins heading into the All-Star break.

The Pirates' final homestand of 2025 will be Sept. 15-21, when they welcome the Cubs and the Oakland Athletics for back-to-back series. They will end the season on the road with three games apiece against the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves.

Pittsburgh's full 2025 regular-season schedule can be found here.

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