Skenes vs. Webb: PNC Park Gets a Marquee Tuesday Night Duel

Two pitchers worth watching are set to square off at PNC Park tonight, giving a late-season Tuesday game more intrigue than it has any right to have. The Giants come in at 57-81, the Pirates at 67-71 — neither club is going anywhere in the standings, but the names on the mound make this one worth tuning in for.

Paul Skenes is expected to start for Pittsburgh, and that alone elevates the stakes. Logan Webb is set to take the mound for San Francisco, and on paper this is the kind of pitching matchup that makes you forget both teams are buried in their respective divisions. The question is whether either offense can do enough damage to make the box score interesting.

On the Pittsburgh side, the offensive load falls heavily on Brandon Lowe, who leads the club with 28 home runs and 82 RBI — numbers that make him the clear power threat in this lineup. Nick Gonzales is hitting .307, giving the Pirates a legitimate contact option at the top of the order to complement Lowe's thump. For San Francisco, Rafael Devers has been the engine, posting 30 home runs and 79 RBI on a team that hasn't given him much help. Jung Hoo Lee's .288 average provides some on-base stability, but the Giants' 57-81 record tells you everything about how those offensive pieces have translated to wins. Devers hitting 30 home runs on a last-place club is a quietly impressive individual performance buried in a lost season.

Our model doesn't have a validated read on this one, so we're not going to manufacture a lean out of thin air. What we can say is that when two quality starters take the mound for teams playing out the string, games like this tend to be decided by one big swing — and both Devers and Lowe have proven they're capable of providing it. Watch the middle innings. If either starter falters, the bullpen situations on these clubs will matter. Catch it on MLB.TV or NBC Sports BA at 6:40 PM ET.