Livvy Dunne Reacted in Disbelief to Pirates’ Epic Collapse in Paul Skenes Start

The Pittsburgh Pirates led the Chicago Cubs, 10-3, after five innings at Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon. Pitcher Paul Skenes, the team’s breakout Rookie of the Year candidate, headed to the showers secure in the knowledge his ninth win of the season was in the bag.

Until it wasn’t.

The Pirates’ swift downfall saw the Cubs score two runs in the seventh inning, three in the eighth, and six in the ninth to win 14-10. Their win probability fell from 99 percent to 1 percent in the span of a couple innings.

When is a seven-run lead not safe? Skenes and his girlfriend, gymnast/social media personality Livvy Dunne, found out the hard way.

Dunne couldn’t help but react to the epic collapse via Twitter/X on Wednesday afternoon:

One win likely means little in the grand scheme of the season for Skenes or for the Pirates. With an 8-2 record and a 2.23 earned-run average, all Skenes needs to do to keep himself in the Rookie of the Year conversation is finish the season healthy. The Pirates, for their part, have no plans to curtail his workload.

Neither does the loss tip the balance in the Wild Card standings — at least for Pittsburgh. At 62-71, they’re 10.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the third and final postseason berth in the National League.

The Cubs (68-66) used the three-game series sweep to climb back over .500 for the season and put them back in the playoff conversation, at least on the fringe.

Chicago is five games behind Atlanta, with only the New York Mets (69-63) standing between them and the Braves in the Wild Card standings.

The San Francisco Giants (67-66) are half a game behind, so the Cubs’ level of comfort could change in a day. But they figure to enter September within striking distance, one year after they missed the postseason cut by a single game. It isn’t the worst place to be.

If they reach the postseason this year, the Cubs will have Wednesday’s comeback victory to thank.

With the score 10-3, Christian Bethancourt’s two-run homer against Kyle Nicolas in the seventh inning brought the Cubs within 10-5. Bethancourt’s two-run double in the eighth inning narrowed the deficit to 10-7. Bethancourt scored later in the inning, bringing Chicago within 10-8.

In the ninth inning, the Cubs loaded the bases against Pirates closer David Bednar while recording only one out. With two outs and the score 10-9, it was Bethancourt again playing the hero. His two-run single put Chicago up 11-10 — giving the Cubs the lead for good.

Jalen Beeks relieved Bednar and allowed three more runs, but the damage was done.

If Dunne’s Twitter/X following of nearly 150,000 wasn’t aware of the Pirates’ bullpen struggles before Wednesday, they are now.