Dodgers vs. Pirates: Paul Skenes, Yoshinobu Yamamoto take the mound in must-see pitching matchup

Two of Major League Baseball’s best starting pitchers will square off on Friday night when Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Los Angeles Dodgers host Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates. First pitch at Dodger Stadium is slated for 10:10 p.m. ET (GameTracker).

Yamamoto will take the mound having compiled a 0.93 ERA (408 ERA+) and a 5.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first five starts. Skenes, for his part, has tallied a 2.87 ERA (143 ERA+) and a 7.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his own first five starts. The two have combined to surrender two runs or fewer in nine of their 10 total starts, suggesting a low-scoring affair awaits.

As for their respective teams, Yamamoto’s Dodgers enter in third place in the National League West with a 16-9 mark. Skenes’ Pirates are worse off in both respects: they’ll come into play with a 10-16 record that places them last in the NL Central. Pittsburgh’s minus-17 run differential is the third-worst among NL teams, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins.

Here are three other things worth knowing about the Yamamoto-Skenes matchup.

1. Third time charm for Skenes vs. Dodgers?

Skenes went head-to-head with the eventual World Series champions twice last season. Both times, the Dodgers fared better against him than the average squad did.

Indeed, baseball historian Bill James once concocted a metric called Game Score that attempts to determine how well a starter pitched. Every starter begins with a baseline Game Score, with their performance dictating whether the number goes up (that’s good) or down (that’s bad). 

Skenes’ average Game Score last season was 64, but what’s more notable is that, per the metric, two of his three worst outings were versus the Dodgers. On June 5, he surrendered three runs over five innings of work. (That was the game, for those with sharp memories, in which Shohei Ohtani homered on a 100 mph pitch.) Then, on August 10, he yielded four runs over six innings of work. The only start in which Skenes had a worse Game Score came in May against the Chicago Cubs.

Do the Dodgers have Skenes’ number? We’ll see come Friday night.

2. Skenes not throwing as hard

When you think about Skenes, you probably think about him routinely clearing 100 mph. He hasn’t done that this season — by which we mean he literally has not thrown a pitch over 100 mph in 2025. He’s come close, maxing out at 99.9 mph, but his overall velocity has been a departure from last season, when he averaged 99 mph on his heaters. (He’s averaging only 97.9 mph to date.)

It’s unclear if Skenes’ reduced velocity is by choice (to conserve stamina) or necessity (pitchers tend to lose mileage as they age). Either way, the decreased oomph hasn’t led to worse fastball results when compared to last season:

By the way, lest this give the impression that Skenes is channeling late-career Kevin Tapani out there, he still ranks second in the majors among qualified pitchers in average fastball velocity. The only pitcher he trails? Cincinnati Reds hurler Hunter Greene.

3. Yamamoto riding scoreless streak

Although Yamamoto may not receive as much ink as Skenes does, he’s also in contention for being known as the best pitcher in the National League. He’ll enter Friday with the superior seasonal ERA, and that’s because of a scoreless streak he’s built over his last three times out. 

Yamamoto hasn’t surrendered a run (earned or otherwise) since the first inning of his April 4 start against the Philadelphia Phillies — or, for those without a game log handy, 18 innings ago. Meanwhile, he hasn’t given up an earned run in more than 20 innings. (With that coming last month, on March 28, against the Detroit Tigers.)

This will mark Yamamoto’s first career appearance against the Pirates. Anything can happen in a single game, but the conditions would seem favorable for him to continue shoving the ball. After all, the Pirates will enter the game ranked 27th in the majors in wRC+ (a catch-all offensive stat that adjusts for ballpark) and 22nd in runs scored (they’re one of 11 teams yet to clear 100 runs).