My apologies to Griffin for not being able to post this yesterday when he actually debuted.  Griffin came into the Royals game down 5-4 to start the third inning in Detroit.  The first batter he faced was Tiger CJ Cron.  The first pitch Griffin threw registered at 92.9 mph and was swung on and missed.  Griffin then threw another fastball getting ahead 0-2.  He tried to put Cron away with a fastball up before registering his first major league strikeout with a curve ball in the dirt.  Griffin breezed through the inning retiring Jordy Mercer and Cameron Maybin both on ground balls.

At that point, the Royals put six runs on the board to give Griffin a lead eventually earning the win.  Griffin got Victor Reyes to ground out before Maikel Franco made a throwing error on Austin Romine’s grounder.  Griffin then got JaCoby Jones to pop up to first base.  At that point, Griffin came out of the game with an injury.  He still has yet to give up a hit or walk a batter in the major leagues.  His final line was 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, and 1 K.

I was excited to see Griffin make the roster earlier this summer and very excited to see him have a strong debut.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed to see him leave with an injury.  Griffin will definitely have a fun story to tell about his MLB debut down the road.

The Royals won the game 14 to 6.  Franco hit two home runs.  Whit Merrifield, Jorge Soler, Brett Phillips, and Salvador Perez all hit home runs as well.

Image taken from FoxSports with a photo credit to the AP.