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6 months ago
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Olivia Dunne and her Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher boyfriend have arrived in the Steel City for his Major League Baseball debut on Saturday against the Chicago Cubs.
Skenes is baseball's top pitching prospect and will make his professional debut while being viewed as a franchise game-changer for the Pirates, who have not made a league championship series since 1979.
Skenes was the No 1 overall pick in last year's MLB Draft and has been in the Pirates minor-league system since wowing scouts.
In 2024, he was with Pittsburgh's Triple-A affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians continuing his rise until Saturday's big-league extravaganza.
Dunne and Skenes have been dating since last summer after months of rumors about their romance. The couple confirmed their relationship through social media.
Dunne posted to Instagram to let Pirates fans know Skenes and her had arrived in Pittsburgh
Skenes is seen as one of the best pitching prospects of the last several years in baseball
The Pirates started the season 11-8, but have since slipped to 17-21 overall heading into Friday's game against Chicago. The franchise turns to Skenes to inject early life into what could become another mediocre season for Pittsburgh.
Skenes' status as a game-changer for Pittsburgh comes from the statistics that no starting pitcher in the history of the league has thrown as fast for as long during stints as he does.
During a recent start against the St. Paul Saints, the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, Skenes threw 34 pitches of 100 miles per hour or greater in 3.1 innings of work.
Skenes is rated as the No 3 prospect in all of baseball, two spots ahead of Texas Rangers star Wyatt Langford, who has played an integral role for the defending World Series champions.
Dunne will likely find a spot in a luxury box above PNC Park for the Saturday afternoon game.
Skenes met Dunne while they were athletes at LSU before he was drafted by the Pirates
Skenes signed a $9.2million bonus when joining the Pirates to go along with Dunne being the highest-earning female collegiate athlete due to NIL deals.
Dunne has still not declared publicly whether she will use her final year of eligibility with LSU, given out by the NCAA due to the Instagram and TikTok star being on the Tiger gymnastics' roster at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Skenes' big-league call-up is sure to factor into that decision, with Dunne likely wanting to travel to as many of his starts as possible.
Dunne could easily stay for another year at LSU as most of the college gymnastics year does not overlap with Major League Baseball's season.
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