Welcome to the Konnor Griffin experience.
The highly touted Pirates 19-year-old shortstop spiked a throw on a potential double play in the top of the fifth inning of Thursday afternoon’s 8-7 loss to the Nationals in 10 innings — moments before launching a game-tying hit.
With one out in the fifth, Griffin fielded a weak grounder from first baseman Luis Garcia Jr., stepped on second and spiked a throw to first into the dirt that rolled into shallow right field to allow all three runners on base to score.
The umpire crew ruled runner Nasim Nuñez — whose hard slide into Griffin impacted the throw — safe at second.
The Pirates unsuccessfully challenged the play, which was scored as a throwing error.
The Nationals added another run later in the inning after starting pitcher Braxton Ashcraft made a throwing error of his own.
Pittsburgh rallied to tie the game at four before again falling behind 5-4 in the sixth. And that’s when Griffin made up for his miscue.
In the bottom of the inning, Griffin launched a ball to center — missing his first career home run by inches — before it caromed far enough for a game-tying RBI triple.
He recorded another hit in the 10th inning on a weak grounder down the third base line, but the Pirates failed to tie the game.
The whirlwind performance encapsulated Griffin’s first few weeks in the majors.
Entering Thursday, Griffin was hitting .189/.279/.243 with five RBIs while striking out 12 times in 37 at-bats.
He hit a booming double in his MLB debut, but notched just six hits in the 11 successive games before Thursday.
Griffin, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the top prospect in baseball entering 2026, was called up in early April after hitting a scorching .438/.571/.625 in five Triple-A contests.
The ninth-overall pick in the 2024 draft hit an eye-popping .333/.415/.527 with 21 homers, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases over 122 games between three levels in 2025, his first professional season.
Griffin inked a nine-year, $140 million extension this month to stay with the Pirates long term.
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