Paul Skenes is well rested heading into Tuesday's start. Since his dominant start in Milwaukee last time out (July 11), he's only thrown the one inning at the All-Star Game. He struck out eight in 6 1/3 scoreless innings on June 11 vs. the Cardinals and his stuff is good enough they won't have any kind of advantage this time. He's struck out at least eight in seven of his last eight starts and the lone miss was when he had seven.

Thei surging Pirates chose to push their best starters to the STL series and rest them vs PHI, which looks pretty savvy. Skenes comes in off ASG high. Pirates are 8-3 when he starts and 4-2 at home with 3 of those wins of the comfortable variety. He shutout the Cards for 6 1/3 in first meeting. Lance Lynn is hitting the wall with a 6.43 ERA his last 7 GS. PIT scores 3 off him in 4 1/3 earlier this season. PIT entered Monday 8-2 in last 10, with 6 wins of multiple runs. Crowd will be fired up for Skenes at home. Pirates bats have been lively lately.

At what point does backing Bucs rookie Paul Skenes get too prohibitive on the moneyline? This is still about 20-25 cents lighter than where I think it will end up -- largely just because of action on Skenes. And guess I'm OK with it at home and opposed by Lance Lynn, who is 1-4 with a 5.36 ERA on the road and wasn't very good in his one start this year vs. Pittsburgh (and that was at Busch Stadium). Skenes hasn't pitched in a while so he might be even filthier than normal. I might have considered -1 at a cheaper number but am not being given that option. Needless to say, listed pitchers.