After his postgame media availability was over, Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez greeted his family. Grayson and his father Gilbert Rodriguez shared an emotional moment after the game, giving each other a big hug while shedding some tears.
The video was posted on the MASN Orioles Twitter account and has garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
The hug was well deserved, as Grayson had just completed his major league debut. He made his first start for the Orioles on April 5 against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field, which happens to be less than 200 miles from his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas.
“I can’t find the right words but of course it was very emotional and we both started crying,” Gilbert said on Glenn Clark Radio April 6 of the moment when Grayson called him to say he would be making his major league debut. “I’m an emotional person myself. It was hard. You go back and think about all the times you threw batting practice. You just think, ‘Dang, it paid off.'”
Grayson had a rough first inning, walking the leadoff batter and allowing two earned runs on a pair of hits. He settled down, striking out five batters in his next four innings. The 2018 first-round pick pitched five innings, throwing 83 pitches (53 strikes) in the Orioles’ 5-2 loss to the Rangers.
“I’m pretty superstitious, and I guess most baseball players are,” Gilbert said. “I’ve never sat. That was the first time I sat in a seat watching him pitch. Through that first inning I thought, ‘I’ve got to get up, I’ve got to get up, I’ve got to move.'”
(Courtesy of Gilbert Rodriguez)
Gilbert said Grayson’s passion for the game began at a very young age.
“There’s just things he did that were incredible,” Gilbert said. “He loved the game since he was 2 [or] 3 years old, when he could watch it on TV. He would just sit there and stare at it. At one point — and I don’t know if he was 6 or 7, maybe even 4 or 5 years old — he started imitating hitters. This is Albert Pujols’ stance, this is so and so and this is so and so.”
Across four minor league seasons and one start in 2023, Grayson compiled a 25-9 record, 2.49 ERA and 421 strikeouts and held batters to a .174 batting average. He entered the season as one of the game’s top prospects, but he had a rough spring training and just missed the cut to make the Orioles’ Opening Day roster.
In five spring training starts, Grayson went 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA, striking out 19 while walking seven batters. However, he made his major league debut a few weeks earlier than initially anticipated after Orioles starting pitcher Kyle Bradish suffered a foot injury on April 3 that forced some shuffling in the Orioles’ rotation.
Grayson’s major league debut was a long time coming for the Rodriguez family. Gilbert built Grayson a baseball field at their house so he could always practice. Gilbert remembered when he realized Grayson had a chance to accomplish all of his goals.
“It was in high school, his senior year,” Gilbert said. “The first game, there were a few scouts, maybe six or seven scouts in the stands. Then as each game went on there were more and more. We got into playoffs at the end of the year there were literally over 50 scouts there, a couple of GMs. … That’s when I thought, ‘OK, we’re on this ride.'”
It all came full circle with that hug in Texas.
“You just go back and you just think of all the ground balls, hits and just everything that he’s done to get there,” Gilbert said. “… It just all comes to you all at once.”
For more from Gilbert Rodriguez, listen to the full interview here: