(Photo credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images)

ATLANTA -- Just to participate in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game would be a career -- and maybe even lifetime -- achievement for many professional baseball players.

For the National League's starting pitcher Paul Skenes, it's becoming a habit.

When Skenes toes the rubber at Truist Park in Atlanta Tuesday night, it will mark the second year he starts the Midsummer Classic in as many big-league seasons.

The 23-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates phenom is joining Joe DiMaggio, Ichiro Suzuki, Rod Carew and Frank Robinson as the only players in MLB history to start the All-Star Game in each of their first two seasons.

Even the mild-mannered flamethrower was taken aback by the list of Hall of Famers.

'It's not a bad list to be on, for sure,' Skenes said. 'It's a huge honor. Thank you, Doc (Dodgers manager Dave Roberts), for giving that to me. The All-Star Game is something that I was lucky enough to do last year and I can't imagine a scenario of turning down a chance to start. It's just such a huge honor to be on this stage and play with all of these unbelievable players, some of them that I've watched for years. So to be able to share a field with them is an awesome experience.'

Skenes' 2.01 ERA leads the majors, although he owns just a 4-8 record with the lowly Pirates.

Roberts was given the occasionally difficult task of choosing an All-Star starting pitcher, but this time around, the Los Angeles manager didn't think twice.

'I think for me it was easy,' Roberts said at his press conference on Monday. 'What Paul has done with his performance should override and supersede anything. ... To have Paul represent the National League -- the first and only Pirates pitcher to do that in back-to-back years -- it wouldn't surprise me if he does it again next year, as well.'

Along with Skenes, the National League starters consist of three Dodgers: designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Will Smith. Chicago Cubs outfielders Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong, Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., Arizona's Ketel Marte, San Diego's Manny Machado and the New York Mets' Francisco Lindor round out the starting nine.

Acuna gets the start in his home ballpark, while Freeman -- a former World Series champion with the Braves and nine-time All-Star-- returns to the city he called home for 12 years.

'Nine times later, it's kind of crazy,' Freeman said. 'I don't take any of this for granted. This is special now that I get to bring my kids. I can't believe it's been nine already; I'm getting old.'

Opposite of Skenes and Roberts in the American League dugout is New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone -- the only active manager to both play and manage in the game.

'Getting selected for an All-Star Game as a player was so meaningful,' Boone said on Monday. 'It meant the world to me and now I get to do it as a manager. I'm so humbled by that and I can't wait to do it with a bunch of guys that I have a lot of respect for.'

Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal gets the ball first for the AL, which has beaten the National League in 10 of the last 11 years.

Skubal, the Detroit Tigers' lefty ace, will be the first to admit that he wasn't on pace to be one of the game's best after his first season in the majors, having posted a 5.63 ERA in his rookie season in 2020. Fast forward five years, and he's arguably baseball's toughest arm.

'I don't want to take anything in this game for granted,' Skubal said. 'This game is so beautiful in the grand scheme of things. Your career is going to be short in terms of how long you live, so I want to be able to enjoy as many years as I get to play the game.'

The first inning on Tuesday will belong to the Tigers, who own the majors' best record at 59-38. Second baseman Gleyber Torres and left fielder Riley Greene will follow Skubal as the American League's first two hitters.

A pair of MVP candidates will then follow in the Yankees' Aaron Judge and Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, before Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Baltimore's Ryan O'Hearn and Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero.

Perhaps the biggest All-Star surprise this season, Detroit's Javier Baez will return to the exhibition for the first time since 2019, before rookie Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson rounds out the American League's starting nine.

--Jack Batten, Field Level Media