'Difference-maker' Konnor Griffin, 19, stars with bat, glove in Pirates debut - ESPN

PITTSBURGH — All of the emotions were there, from joy to jitters and everything in between.

Well, almost everything.

The one thing Konnor Griffin didn't feel when the Pittsburgh Pirates' shortstop, who is 19 years and 344 days old, prepared for his big league debut Friday against the Baltimore Orioles was shock.

«I'm ready for this,» Griffin said a few hours before stepping onto the field at PNC Park as a major leaguer for the first time.

It certainly looks that way.

All of Griffin's considerable physical gifts were on display over 2 hours and 44 electric minutes in a 5-4 victory over the Orioles.

There was the tidy double play he turned in the second inning. There was the 105 mph rope he hit to the wall in center field in his first at-bat a few minutes later against Baltimore's Kyle Bradish that scored Ryan O'Hearn and sent a jolt through a sellout crowd.

There was his blistering dash from second to home on an ensuing ground ball to right field by teammate Jared Triolo. There was the confidence to successfully challenge a strike call in his third at-bat. He displayed the composure to gather a chopper he briefly bobbled before firing to first for an out to end the eighth, too.

It was all part of what Griffin called «hands down one of the best days of my life,» and what everyone involved with the organization hopes is the start of a long, successful run for a franchise that hasn't reached the postseason in over a decade.

«He's a difference-maker, it was very apparent today,» said Pirates ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, who knows about entering the majors with outsized expectations.

Just 628 days after Pittsburgh selected him with the ninth pick in the 2024 amateur draft, the athletic and mustachioed