PITTSBURGH Pirates prodigy Paul Skenes is finally set to make his MLB debut.
The first overall pick out of LSU in the 2023 MLB Draft, pitcher Skenes has had to wait his turn, working his way through the minors since being selected.
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However, on Wednesday, it was announced that the Pirates had called up the 21-year-old for his long-awaited debut.
Skenes is expected to take to the mound on Saturday, May 11 when they host the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park.
The news was revealed on X, formerly known as Twitter, where the Pirates shared a highlight reel of Skenes in team gear along with the caption “5.11.24.”
His girlfriend, LSU gymnast and social media sensation Olivia Dunne took to TikTok to celebrate the big news.
Read More on Olivia Dunne
“POV: You wake up from a nap and find out he’s in the MLB,” she captioned a reel showing her dancing in a hotel room alongside a seemingly unaware Skenes.
Dunne then panned around to Skenes before she jumped around in celebration.
The happy couple has since headed for his new home, with Dunne sharing a selfie on her Instagram Stories of them together in the back of a car captioned, “Helloooo Pittsburgh.”
She followed this up with another snapshot of Skenes in the driver’s seat pointing at PNC Park.
Come Saturday, Skenes will have to make sure he’s loaded up on calories ahead of the game.
Pitchers who throw with the velocity of Skenes can burn up to 5,000 calories in a single game, according to ESPN.
Thankfully, Skenes appears to have a pre-game ritual in place to combat these demands.
Prior to LSU’s 2023 College World Series win, Skenes told the NCAA’s Michella Chester that he eats chicken alfredo before each outing.
“I tried it in preseason and I just didn’t run out of energy, cause that was something that I was battling in the fall and the winter, and I just stuck with it,” he explained.
“I’ve had it every outing. A couple of weeks ago we had a rain delay and I had two chicken alfredos”
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While at LSU, Skenes also found another way to battle tiredness during games.
After arriving from the Air Force Academy in 2021, pitching coach Wes Johnson suggested to Skenes that he take shots of honey to help avoid fatigue, as per ESPN.
“Paul would go through half a bear a game,” Johnson told the network, in reference to the popular bear-shaped honey bottles.
Skenes’ debut follows a hugely promising start to the season for Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis.
DUNNE AND SKENES’ SUMMER OF LOVE
Olivia Dunne and Paul Skenes managed to keep their relationship a secret before finally going public last summer.
The pair met at LSU, but it’s not clear when they started dating.
Rumors of a romance began when Dunne watched LSU win the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska last summer.
And Dunne then posted selfies from Fort Myers in Florida, where Skenes was playing.
He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and began his pro career by playing in minor leagues in the Sunshine State.
The final clue came when Dunne posed in a Pirates cap before the pair finally went public.
In seven games, he has totaled 45 strikeouts, eight walks, 17 hits allowed, with an ERA of 0.99.
Skenes has yet to pitch more than 75 times in a game this season for the Indians.
A right-hander, his fastballs have varied between 97-101 miles per hour, for an average of 99.9, according to USA Today.
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