Paul Skenes’ biggest fan was conspicuously quiet during his four-inning appearance for the United States during Monday’s World Baseball Classic showdown with Mexico, and now we know why.
Olivia “Livvy” Dunne, the former LSU gymnastics star and Skenes’ girlfriend, posted to her social media that she had to miss the Cy Young winner’s start because she had to “work.”
“Ya girls gotta work but…GO USA RAHHH,” she captioned a social media video posted on Monday night, along with an American bald eagle emoji.
In the video, Dunne is seen holding up a Skenes No. 30 jersey and jumping around excitedly, with the words, “getting excited to watch your bf rep the USA,” flashing on the screen.
It then jumps to a Dunne in different attire and the words “misses game” are written over the video.
It wasn’t clear what work commitment Dunne had to attend, but she had been there to support Skenes previously during the WBC.
She had posted a video several days prior from the stands while attending one of Team USA’s exhibition games in Arizona before the official start of the international competition.
Skenes put on an impressive performance that Dunne surely would have fawned over, going four innings and allowing just one hit while striking out seven batters.
He also walked just one batter while on the mound.
Skenes told the Fox broadcast that it was “awesome” to get the chance to put on the Team USA jersey on Monday.
“Getting that five-run inning made it really easy to go back out there, but that was unbelievable,” Skenes told Ken Rosenthal.
The United States had amassed a five-run lead over Mexico when Skenes came out of the game to start the fifth inning.
Rays left-hander Garrett Cleavinger came into the game for Skenes and pitched one inning without giving up a hit. Mexico cut the USA’s lead 5-3 in the eighth on the back of two home runs by Red Sox star Jarren Duran.