After a long time of waiting, Paul Skenes is now in The Show. The Pittsburgh Pirates prospect made his first start for the major league team on Saturday. After years of carving up batters in the minor league system, fans were pretty hyped up to see Skenes go up against the best of the best.

One of Skenes' biggest fans just so happens to be one of the more famous athletes in the United States. Skenes' girlfriend, gymanst Olivia Dunne, showed up to the Pirates game to support her boyfriend. After the game, Dunne was naturally interviewed about her boyfriend. The star gymnast was incredibly supportive of Skenes, saying:

“I have so many amazing memories with him, but I know how hard he’s worked for this moment. All the hours, I just know what a hard worker he is. This is probably one of my favorite moments I’ve ever seen. Seriously, there is nothing that can top this. I’m just so proud.'”

What an awesome response! Surely, the comments on X would echo this sentiment, right? Unfortunately, the fans were not happy with Dunne. There were plenty of comments complaining about the gymnast. Most didn't seem to be Pirates fans, anyway.

“Livvy gets more tweets than Ozuna bro what is this”

“we don’t care about Livvy Dunne”

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“We don’t care about Livvy. Average blonde girl. Paul skenes we care about.”

If this sounds familiar… well, it's because we've seen this script play out before. In the NFL, Travis Kelce's relationship with Taylor Swift (and the media attention it got) seemed to irritate a sizable portion of the fanbase. We seem to be seeing the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale, with Skenes and Dunne. In just his first MLB game, the Pirates star's girlfriend is already being hated by the fans.

Paul Skenes' first start

As for Skenes, his first game for the Pirates went about as well as you'd expect from a pitching prospect making his first major league start. He pitched four innings, allowing six hits and three runs while striking out seven during their game against the Chicago Cubs. Pitching against Triple-A hitters is wildly different from pitching against a major-league lineup, but Skenes held his own pretty well.

Unfortunately, the Pirates' bullpen let Skenes and the team down in the game. After a rain delay, Pittsburgh's relievers allowed seven runs with six walks to allow the Cubs to come back. Thankfully, there were able to recover just in time. A timely Yasmani Grandal homer in the fifth gave Pittsburgh the lead back, a lead that they would never relinquish.

The Pirates are still in the midst of a rebuild. While they have some firepower on their roster (Bryan Reynolds, O'Neill Cruz are two examples), they still have a ways to go. Still, their farm system is teeming with prospects that are ready to prove themselves. This wasn't the smoothest start to Skenes' MLB career. However, his trajectory can only go up from here. How far will Skenes go in his path to greatness?