Paul Skenes' stellar performance for MiLB team Indians earns praise from girlfriend Olivia Dunne's mom

Paul Skenes has hit the ground running in the minor leagues, and the Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect is impressing with his performances. Skenes started for the Indianapolis Indians on Friday, recording six strikeouts in three innings pitched, allowing only one hit.

Skenes took to Instagram on Sunday to post some photos and a video of his performance, which he captioned:

"Don't mix hot and cold."

The post drew a lot of responses, with many applauding the pitcher's skills, including his girlfriend, Olivia Dunne, and her mother, Katherine Dunne.

Paul Skenes' performance draws praise from Kat Dunne

The Indians defeated the Memphis Redbirds 8-3, and Indianapolis pitching coach Drew Benes praised Skenes (via MiLB.com):

“He is incredible in every way. The way he’s wired, the way he goes about his work, the focus, obviously the ability. It’s all there. Just walking through this stage with him, it’ll be a lot of fun.”

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No timeline for Paul Skenes call-up as Pirates top NL Central

The Pittsburgh Pirates are off to a great start in 2024, going 8-2. With Paul Skenes developing nicely and the team atop the NL Central, there's a lot of room for optimism around the franchise.

Manager Ben Cherington addressed the questions from a lot of fans about Skenes' MLB future on Sunday, telling MLB Network Radio:

“Paul's doing everything to show that there's a chance that he can really help us in 2024. And what we're doing is trying to put him in a position to do that safely and effectively. We kind of had that in the back of our mind when we drafted Paul and getting to know him this spring.

“He's going to start to build pitch count as we get deeper into April, confident that he'll handle that really well and we'll see where that leads us. No timeline. He's really important to us, and we think that he certainly has the ability to help us potentially this year.”

The Pirates entered the season looking to book a playoff spot and silence their critics. After the 2-1 series win over the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh is showing that it can go toe to toe with the best teams in the league, so it will be interesting to see how far they can go.