Olivia Dunne Marked Her Presence At Boyfriend Paul Skenes’s Double-A Debut Although It Was Not That Great
Despite the support of his girlfriend, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, Paul Skenes’ debut in Double-A didn’t go well.
The No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft made just two outs while giving up four runs on three singles on Saturday, helping the Altoona Curve win 9-8. Skenes recorded both outs by striking out while also walking two hitters.
In his first few weeks of professional baseball, the right-handed pitcher for the Pirates, who played collegiately and won a national championship at LSU, has already made an impression. He is widely regarded as the best pitching prospect in all of baseball.
Prior to the end of August, he was called up from Double-A after hitting 100 mph in his debut.
Dunne has accompanied Skenes throughout those promotions as well. According to On3.com, Dunne is ranked No. 2 among collegiate players with NIL earnings of $3.2 million.
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By tagging Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona, Pennsylvania with a Pirates jersey in an Instagram Story post and sharing a TikTok from the stands of the ballpark, Dunne appeared to confirm that she had traveled there for the Curve’s game against the Akron RubberDucks on Saturday.
Skenes gave up a single and a walk before striking out his first RubberDucks opponent, but after a single and a walk, runs were scored, and after another strikeout and another walk, his outing came to an end.
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Given that Skenes’ previous three appearances together lasted four innings, it’s unclear how long he was anticipated to pitch before leaving the game early. He might have had a stringent pitch limit.
Skenes’ final stats were completed when Noe Toribio, the Curve’s bullpen replacement, permitted two inherited runners to score.
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Paul Skenes Double-A debut:
0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO pic.twitter.com/oFSaMh6sfl
— Milb Central (@milb_central) August 26, 2023
“Looking at the outing today, wasn’t probably the best stuff and it wasn’t the best execution,” The Post-Gazette quotes Skenes as saying this after the game. “But, they hit three balls through the infield under 90 mph and nine times out of 10, I feel like those are outs and they just landed three of them.”
The relationship between Skenes and Dunne, he said to the Post-Gazette earlier this month, was “just a small-world type of thing,” and it started because Elena Marenas, a member of Dunne’s LSU gymnastics team, was dating his friend.
