Billed as a matchup between the National League’s best arms, both vying for the league’s Cy Young award, Friday night lived up to its pitchers’ duel expectations.
Enter 22-year-old flamethrower Paul Skenes. He grew up in Fullerton. He began his meteoric rise to household-name status at nearby El Toro High.
Coming off his NL Rookie of the Year award-winning 2024 campaign, in his second-career start at Dodger Stadium, the former Louisiana State star harnessed the “plus-plus stuff” — emphasized by his 99.4 mph first-inning strikeout of Freddie Freeman, dazzling curveballs and stand out “splinker” — that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts marveled about pregame.