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Brewers Just Set up the Most Highly Anticipated Pitching Matchup of the Season Against Pirates
© Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Pitching matchups between highly touted players happen quite often. Opening Day is filled with elite pitchers going toe-to-toe as teams line up their aces right out of the gate. Rarely though, during the middle of the season, do we get a matchup of starting pitchers so juicy, so intriguing, it draws the attention of the entire league as soon as the probable starters were announced.

That's exactly what's coming this week between the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday afternoon at American Family Field.

It'll be reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes on the mound for the Pirates against flamethrowing rookie Jacob Misiorowski for the Brewers. '

Paul Skenes vs Jacob Misiorowski

The Brewers and Pirates announced their probable starters for the next series on Sunday and just like many had projected for the last week, the two pitchers with perhaps the most electric stuff in baseball will be pitching in the same game.

Skenes has a 1.85 ERA on the season with 106 strikeouts. His fastball averages 98 MPH and he's hit triple-digits 28 times this season. He's coming off a runaway Rookie of the Year campaign and All Star start after being the #1 overall pick in the 2023 Draft.

Misiorowski didn't allow a hit for his first 11 IP in the majors and has already thrown 52 pitches north of 100 MPH. He's already sending his hat to the Baseball Hall of Fame and has set an MLB record for longest stretch without allowing a hit to start a career as a starting pitcher.

Skenes is in the 100th percentile in the league in Pitching Run Value and the 99th percentile in Fastball Run Value. Misiorowski is 100th percentile in extension and 99th percentile in Fastball Velocity. While Misiorowski doesn't have the MLB volume that Skenes does to qualify in other stats, it doesn't take some of those numbers to know the quality of stuff.

You'd have trouble finding two pitchers in Major League Baseball with more electric stuff than these two. Getting both of them against each other in the same game will be appointment television for baseball fans everywhere, not just in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. 

It'll be a Wednesday afternoon getaway game to wrap up the series between the Brewers and Pirates, but no one will be able to get their eyes away from this game with these two masters of their craft on the bump.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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