Skenes, Miz, Meyer will not pitch in All-Star Game

Nothing was said about Skenes’ status immediately after the game, but his velocity was down some tonight and he departed after just 65 pitches. That turned out to be a good call by the Pirates, as Yohan Ramírez pitched three hitless innings with five strikeouts after taking over. Skenes struck out four while averaging 95.7 mph with his fastball. Even his hardest heater of the night, at 96.5 mph, fell shy of his season average of 96.9 mph. He allowed just the one earned run on Esteury Ruiz’s homer, but he gave up eight hard-hit balls, including a potential second homer from Griffin Conine that was brought back by Bryan Reynolds in left field. Skenes fell to 9-11 with a 3.88 ERA. He’s due to face the Red Sox on Sunday.

With the save, O’Brien is now up to 30 on the year. He didn’t allow a hit, and picked up a strikeout while lowering his ERA to 3.14 on the year. A 40-save campaign is within reach if the Cardinals get hot.

O’Brien got a 100-mph lineout to left, a 103-mph groundout and then an 88-mph liner to left that required an excellent diving catch from Everson Pereira. It’s his seventh straight scoreless appearance, and he’s now tied with Mason Miller for the NL lead in saves.

He struck out nine. Misiorowski averaged 103.4 mph with his 10 fastballs in the first inning, but he was down to about 100 mph later and gave up homers on fastballs of 99.4 mph to Brooks Lee in the fifth and 99.1 mph to Kody Clemens in the sixth. Misiorowski has now allowed nine homers in his last seven starts after giving up just four in his first 15. Fortunately, though, he’s still not really allowing anything besides the homers; he’s given up a total of 11 earned runs in the seven starts. He’ll face the Dodgers next weekend.

Luzardo walked one as the Phillies won 7-6 in 12 innings. The lefty has been on a roll lately and lowered his ERA to 3.32 on Sunday. Since arriving in Philadelphia in 2025, he has posted one of the lower left-on-base rates among qualified starters, suggesting he’s been a bit unlucky. That was evident in the gap between his ERA and estimators last season and early in 2026. The most recent version of Luzardo is the best we’ve seen in the bigs, and he’s throwing his sweeper even more so far this year. It’s a pitch he debuted in 2025. Next time out, Luzardo draws the Twins in Minnesota.

O’Brien made us sweat with a lead-off walk to start the ninth inning in a one run game, but immediately forced Kyle Karros to hit into a double play and neutralize the threat. His 28 saves are tied with Mason Miller for third-most in the league trailing only Bryan Baker and Cade Smith. He’s also only allowed two earned runs since the start of July in what’s turned into a standout season.

Ashcraft is now 15 innings over his previous career high from last year, and while it hasn’t taken a toll on his velocity at all, his results are suffering; he’s given up 22 earned runs over 24 innings in his last five starts, taking his ERA from 3.24 to 4.08. There was nothing illegitimate about his first-half numbers, but it could be a bumpy ride here in August and September. He’ll face the Marlins next week.

Once again, Skenes was simply not sharp here. His command was a mess as he walked four batters for the second straight start. Those woes were most apparent with his fastball. He simply could not find the zone with it and missed too many of his spots by a wide margin. In turn, he threw his second-lowest rate of fastballs in any start this season. Yet, it was only the second time over the last two months where that pitch’s average velocity stretched back above 97 mph. It was also his first time in 10 starts where he threw multiple pitches above 98 mph. Is his arm tired? Are his mechanics out of whack because he’s trying to reach back and find more velocity? We simply don’t know, but this is more than just a poor stretch now. Skenes has a 6.14 ERA over his last seven starts and the Pirates are an unthinkable 3-12 in his last 15. He’s scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Marlins and Red Sox as he desperately tries to get back on track.

Henry Davis isn’t catching Paul Skenes for the first time since last April. We’ll see if the change has an impact on Skenes from a performance standpoint, but the Pirates are going to keep rolling with Rodríguez behind the dish since he’s hitting .268/.380/.457 with six homers and six steals in 151 plate appearances since mid-May.

Luzardo allowed one or no runs for the sixth time in seven starts and the 12th time this season. He’s probably about due to go on one of those runs in which he allowed six runs in three of four outings, but through 23 starts this year, he’s 10-5 with a 3.36 ERA and 164 strikeouts, which ranks sixth in the majors. He’ll face the Blue Jays on Sunday.