Saturday’s matinee between the Pirates and Yankees will be Paul Skenes’ final appearance as he masterfully advances to the big leagues.

LSU’s first pick of 2023 was the most electrifying pitching prospect we’ve seen since Stephen Strasburg. He averaged 98.8 mph on his fastball and posted nearly 11½ strikeouts per nine innings.

Skenes’ strikeouts prop line against the Yankees is 6.5, which he has surpassed in 73 percent of his 22 starts.

Regardless of which version of the Yankees lineup Aaron Boone chooses, this will be the highest-scoring WAR leader the Bombers have ever faced, behind Tarik Skubal, Zack Wheeler and NL favorite Cy Young Chris Sale, who was the only one of these three to have recorded at least seven strikeouts in their respective meetings.

In a tiny sample, Skenes elicited two hesitant hits with his sinker against Juan Soto, whom he marched, and made quick work of Aaron Judge on a one-pitch groundout in the All-Star Game.

This sinker can flick corners deep and away, making it his most popular put-away pitch, shutting out hitters with a 26.7 percent strike rate on two-strike pitches.

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He’s the clear -250 favorite to win National League Rookie of the Year at BetMGM and – not that this game will significantly hurt or help his campaign in an abstract sense – we can expect the young pitching sensation to be his breakout -Season emphatically ends with a great success. Market stage.

The piece: Skenes over 6.5 strikeouts (FanDuel, -125).

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Sean Stangedi covers the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He focuses primarily on decisions that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.