It was exactly what you'd want from a marquee matchup between a pair of first-round picks.
One delivered a career-high strikeouts. The other homered off him on the first pitch of the game.
That's what happened when the Blue Jays' top pitching prospect Trey Yesavage met talented Pirates teen Konnor Griffin for the first time in a Single-A contest Tuesday.
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Yesavage, the 20th overall pick in the 2024 Draft, recorded the dozen whiffs while allowing two runs across five innings in Dunedin's 11-3 win over Bradenton at TD Ballpark.
But Griffin, the ninth overall pick in that Draft, did get to him on the leadoff home run.
"Whenever you have a player of that caliber like Konnor and that talent and that pedigree, you pay a little bit extra attention to him," Dunedin manager Gil Kim said. "It was an interesting matchup, especially how it got off to that start. He's a big physical player, very athletic, obviously a ton of raw power. And Trey had to pitch a little bit more in the at-bats that followed, but it was definitely something fun to watch out there."
First at-bat
Coming out of the Mississippi high school ranks, Griffin hadn't seen many pitchers before with the deep arsenal of Yesavage, who arrived in pro ball from East Carolina. Given what he knew about the righty's secondary pitches, MLB's No. 37 prospect was ready to jump on the first good pitch he could hit.
"It was a good battle facing Trey," Griffin said. "Really good arm. ... My approach was, you've got to get him away from you. His fastball, it can take off and run at the top of the zone. And then good luck on the changeup, splitter, whatever he throws. I just tried to get him away a little bit."
Sure enough, the first pitch was a fastball at the top of the zone, and the Pirates' No. 2 prospect pulled it at 103.6 mph way over bullpen in left field. That marked the second home run -- and seventh hit -- in Griffin's past 10 at-bats.
Second at-bat
Yesavage wasn't going to mess around with fastballs the second time around against Griffin to lead off the third. In fact, MLB's No. 71 prospect went to his slider three straight times down and away. He picked up a called strike before cutting the 19-year-old down with two more whiffs.
"What Trey stands out for, obviously, is his talent, his ability and his stuff," Kim said. "But with that being said, he's been just as impressive to watch how he attacks hitters, how he makes adjustments, how resilient he is when maybe things aren't flowing as smoothly as you would expect. … That's what we saw there in that second at-bat, recognizing some ways to attack Konnor there and going with that slider and continuing to go with it."
Third at-bat
At this point, Yesavage was on quite a roll. After giving up a leadoff homer to Jhonny Severino (PIT No. 12) in the second, the 21-year-old righty retired 11 of the next 13 hitters, nine of them on K's. Naturally, his final opponent of the outing was the same one he started against.
Yesavage fell behind 2-0 on a splitter and a breaking ball in the dirt before stealing back a pair of strikes on the heater. The Blue Jays' No. 2 prospect got the last laugh on a splitter in the dirt for his career-high 21st whiff on 40 swings (52.5 percent).
"That looked like it started middle and then just fell off the table," said Griffin, who went 1-for-4 in the game. "He's a really good pitcher. It's a fun battle. That's the type of game that I'd want to go see if I was a fan."