Konnor Griffin doubled and drove in a run in his major league debut to back up a quality start by Mitch Keller and propel the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles in their home opener on Friday.
Griffin, ranked the top prospect in baseball by multiple outlets, recorded his first major league hit and RBI and scored his first career run during a four-run second inning for Pittsburgh, which won its third in a row.
The Pirates moved above the .500 mark for the first time since Aug. 4, 2024.
Griffin roped his double into the left-center gap off Orioles starter Kyle Bradish (0-2) on his first career at-bat to drive in Ryan O’Hearn. Griffin came around to score when Jared Triolo, who led the Pirates with two hits, singled to right field.
Henry Davis followed with an RBI double and Oneil Cruz drove in Davis with a single to give Pittsburgh a 4-0 edge.
Griffin also walked his second time up in the fourth and went 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
Bradish gave up four runs on six hits and three walks and struck out six over four innings.
Keller (1-0) allowed two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out four over six innings.
Gunnar Henderson led the Orioles with three hits, including a run-scoring double off Keller that was followed by an RBI double by Adley Rutschman to cut the Orioles’ deficit to 4-2.
Henderson belted his second home run of the season off Pirates reliever Gregory Soto in the top of the ninth with two outs.
But Soto picked up his first save of the season by striking out Pete Alonso.
Blaze Alexander and Dylan Beavers each had two hits for the Orioles, who lost for the third time in their past four games.
Griffin became the first teenage position player to appear in an MLB game since Juan Soto in 2018 and the first Pirates player to do so since Aramis Ramirez in 1998. Griffin was also the youngest player to play a game within his team’s first seven games of a season since Andruw Jones in 1997.
