The 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta brought together the best of baseball as it does every year. This year, the honor of starting the game fell to two of the most dominant pitchers in the league: Tarik Skubal, the Detroit Tigers ace and 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner, and Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ flamethrower and 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, who was also a repeat starter.
Despite the importance of the game, it was a pregame moment during a joint interview with Fox Sports’ Tom Rinaldi that stole the show. What was expected to be a routine chat about their preparations and mutual admiration turned into a hilarious and surprisingly candid revelation from Skenes, who admitted a truth that left Skubal and viewers alike in a mixture of awe and laughter.
Skenes’ extreme honesty
The question was simple: how closely had Paul Skenes followed Tarik Skubal’s path to the major leagues? Skenes’ answer was unexpected and direct: “I didn’t follow Major League Baseball at all when I was in college,” the young pitcher confessed. “So I’d never heard of you,” he added, directing his gaze toward a slightly surprised Tarik Skubal. This revelation, coming from one of baseball’s biggest prospects, was not only unexpected, but also drew laughter for its honesty.
Skenes did not stop there. He complemented his candor with a curious anecdote that explained how he finally met Skubal: “One of my teammates said he was watching you on TV and you didn’t blink. He said, ‘Tigers when they’re hunting, they don’t blink'”. Skubal, amused, admitted that he was not aware of that habit, describing it as something strange that happens in the intensity of competition
A duel full of quality
Beyond the friendly revelation, Skubal and Skenes demonstrated on the mound why they were chosen to start the All-Star Game. Each pitched one inning and recorded two strikeouts, making clear the caliber of their arsenal. Their strikeout pitches were among the fastest thrown during an All-Star Game since the start of the pitch-tracking era, cementing their reputation as pure power generators.
In this way, the 2025 MLB All-Star Game left great moments on and off the field, so the fans were more than satisfied with a perfect mix of surprises, humor and a lot of baseball.
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