The visiting Pittsburgh Pirates will turn to major league ERA leader Paul Skenes on Tuesday as they attempt to slow down the surging Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brewers took the series opener 7-1 on Monday night to extend their winning streak to 10 games and widen their lead in the National League Central to 6 1/2 games over the idle Chicago Cubs.
Skenes (7-8, 1.94 ERA) will be opposed by fellow right-hander Freddy Peralta (13-5, 3.03), who leads the NL in victories.
Milwaukee’s Brice Turang and Christian Yelich homered on Monday, and Jose Quintana allowed one run on three hits over six innings. The Brewers had 11 hits, capitalized on an error and went 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“They grind at-bats out, they find a way to continue to put the ball in play, they move guys around, they run the bases really well and they did that tonight,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said.
Milwaukee improved to 74-44, the best record in the majors and a season-high 30 games above .500. The Brewers, 25-4 over their past 29 games, became the first team to have two winning streaks of at least 10 games in the same season since the 2019 Houston Astros.
“Honestly, nobody cares what we’ve done in the past month,” Yelich said. “It’s all great, but we have bigger goals than winning 74 games.”
Brewers rookie Isaac Collins, the reigning NL Player of the Week, doubled and tripled on Monday. He has six multi-hit games in his past nine contests, hitting .444 (16-for-36) over that span with four doubles, two triples, two homers and 10 RBIs.
Peralta is 8-1 with a 3.52 ERA over his past 10 starts. He picked up a win in his latest outing, allowing one run on four hits in five innings in a 7-2 victory at Atlanta on Aug. 5.
Peralta is 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 24 career games, including 15 starts, against Pittsburgh. He is 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in two starts this season versus the Pirates.
Skenes allowed a career-high seven hits in his most recent start, but he did not allow a run in six innings during a 7-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.
“He’s got that knack,” Kelly said after that contest. “He’s got elite stuff, but when he gets in trouble, he’s able to go to a lot of different things to get out of the inning, to be able to get punchouts or induce double plays.”
Skenes is 1-1 with a 2.65 ERA in three career starts versus Milwaukee. He is 0-1 in two starts against the Brewers this season, having allowed a total of five runs in 10 innings.
The Pirates are 24-47 this season when their starter fails to go six innings. Pittsburgh also dropped to 17-40 on the road, compared with 34-29 at home.
The Pirates’ bullpen got a boost on Monday when Chase Shugart was activated after more spending than a month on the injured list due to left knee inflammation. He immediately saw action out of the bullpen, allowing one run on two hits in three innings while striking out five in his first game back.
–Field Level Media
