Konnor Griffin helps Pirates to win in his Major League debut
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Konnor Griffin’s debut was one of the most anticipated debuts we have seen in the league in a long time, and it’s safe to say his debut lived up to those high expectations.
Griffin Batted seventh and started at shortstop in front of a sellout crowd of 38,986 at PNC Park. The rookie provided the highlight moment of the Bucs’ 5-4 win against the Baltimore Orioles when he smashed an RBI double in the first at-bat of his Major League career, opening the scoring in the Bucs four-run second inning. Griffin would score in the very next at bat thanks to an RBI single by Jared Triolo.
Pittsburgh had four straight hits in that second inning that all resulted in RBIs. Henry Davis hit an RBI double that scored Triolo, then Oneil Cruz hit an RBI single to score Davis and give the Pirates a four run lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Ryan O’Hearn hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Bryan Reynolds and give the Bucs a 5-2 lead.
Griffin slashed .438/.571/.625 in his five games this season with Triple-A Indianapolis before getting called up. In 122 games last year, he hit .333 with 21 home runs, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases en route to being named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year. The shortstop was the ninth overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Griffin, who doesn’t turn 20 years old until April 24, is the first teenaged position player in MLB since Juan Soto debuted with Washington in 2018. He’s also the first teenager to debut for Pittsburgh since Aramis Ramirez in 1998. Griffin is also the first teen to hit an extra base hit in his first major league game since Soto did it in 2018.
Griffin reached base for the second time when he led off the fourth inning with a five-pitch walk. He advanced to second base on another single to right by Triolo, but he was later forced out at third after Davis grounded into a double play.
In his last two at bats, the 19 year old would strike out and ground out to finish his day. Even though he only had one hit, it was clear he made an impact in front of the home crowd.
The sellout crowd on hand kept its energy up for the entire game, there were four moments, during Griffin’s at-bats, where the noise came to a halt, with more than 38,000 fans hanging onto every pitch in anticipation for what their city’s newest star was going to do next. It was the kind of energetic environment that Kelly believes his team will have to get used to playing in front of as they hope to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2015.
Griffin was impressive in his debut. He showed confidence and made a couple of nice defensive plays. If he can continue to play like that he will play an important part of this time for the whole season.
With the 5-4 win the Bucs now improve to 4-3 on the season. The Pirates play the Orioles at 4:05 back at home on Saturday afternoon with Carmen Mlodzinski on the mound.
