Just how good was Skenes according to Crew? 'The best I’ve seen'

MILWAUKEE -- Before this week, only one team had faced both reigning Cy Young Award winners in back-to-back games. No team had ever done it on back-to-back days. But as the Brewers stared down Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes, even as manager Pat Murphy wrote lineup cards missing three of Milwaukee’s top hitters, they insisted on viewing it as an opportunity.

If that’s the case, it was an opportunity missed.

The Brewers had Skubal and the Tigers beat on Thursday afternoon in Detroit only to let the game get away, then came home on Friday to get carved up by Skenes for seven innings of Milwaukee’s 6-0 loss to the Pirates at American Family Field.

Was it the best the Brewers have seen from Skenes in his five career starts against them?

“That’s the best I’ve seen from anyone, I think,” Murphy said.

Skubal’s nine-up, nine-down start to Thursday’s matinee was nothing compared to what the Brewers, playing without the injured Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn, had on their hands against Skenes on Friday night. The 23-year-old right-hander retired the first 20 batters he faced before Jake Bauers grounded a single to center field with two outs in the seventh inning, dashing Skenes’ bid to join the 24 pitchers in AL/NL history who have achieved perfection.

It proved to be the Brewers’ only hit, making this the 39th time in franchise history they were held to one or no hits, and the first time since June 2022.

“There are a lot of pitchers that have gone six perfect, so I wasn't thinking about it a ton,” Skenes said. “I've had no-hit outings and gotten pulled and it was close, so it's really just executing and putting up more zeros and doing everything to win the game.”

Skenes was in total control for 97 pitches over seven innings, striking out seven. Through the first five innings, the Brewers put one ball in play with an exit velocity north of 84 mph, and that was Brandon Lockridge’s routine groundout to shortstop in the third. Milwaukee didn’t hit a ball to the outfield until David Hamilton popped out to shallow center field to end the sixth.

And before Bauers, the Brewers didn’t come remotely close to collecting a hit besides Sal Frelick’s ground ball to the hole at second base leading off the sixth inning. Pirates second baseman Brandon Lowe made a nice sliding stop and converted the out.

When a pitcher is dotting every one of his pitches like that, what’s a hitter to do?

“I was thinking about telling guys just to jump in front of it,” Murphy quipped. “You know what I mean? Just jump in front of it and try to get hit.”

By then, Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff had completed a five-inning outing in which he threw a version of a fastball for 59 of his 71 pitches. All 10 of his pitches in the first inning were four-seamers. His first 32 pitches were four-seamers or two-seamers, including a four-seam fastball on pitch No. 29 that Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin, celebrating his 20th birthday, sent out to right field for his first career home run.

Woodruff didn't throw a breaking ball until the fourth inning, on his 38th pitch.

It wasn’t by design, said Woodruff, who didn’t even realize how many fastballs he was throwing until he was informed by pitching coach Chris Hook between innings.

“I’m just big on what the hitters were telling me,” Woodruff said.

The Brewers will face another tough matchup on Saturday against Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller, but at least he doesn’t have a Cy Young Award on his mantle.

Where did Skenes’ performance rank among Woodruff’s career matchups against baseball’s best?

“That was pretty good, and you have to give credit,” Woodruff said. “I usually have a routine between innings, and it was going by so fast that it was like every time I could sit down, it was pretty much [time] to go back out. Which is good, I like the rhythm. But you could just tell he was on top of his game tonight.”

Before the Brewers this week, the 2025 Red Sox were the only team to face both reigning Cy Young Award winners in consecutive games. A quirk that only became theoretically possible once a winner was chosen in each league beginning in 1967, wasn’t more than a million to one shot until Interleague Play began in 1997, and wasn’t a real possibility until teams started matching up against all 29 other teams in 2023.

Boston drew Skubal and the Braves’ Chris Sale back to back.

Just like the Brewers, they lost both games.

“We’ve said it forever, good pitching -- great pitching -- takes you a long way,” Murphy said. “And the two guys we faced were really top notch.”