As AL pitchers adjusted, Trey Mancini looked to do likewise

In an interview before last night's game, Trey Mancini spoke about seeing pitchers beginning to serve him a more steady diet of off-speed pitches. He also said he was adjusting to that and was feeling really good at the plate.

Then during the game last night those words rang true.

Mancini produced an RBI double in the first and drilled a 398-foot, two-run homer in the fifth in the manOrioles' 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox. He has now driven in a run in four straight games. Over his past three games, he is 5-for-9 with two doubles, a homer and five RBIs. Even without playing every day he ranks second on the team with six homers and tied for second in RBIs with 17.

At the rate Mancini was hitting homers earlier, to go a few games without one (he went six) seemed like a homer drought. He hit two homers April 12 at Boston. Four days later he hit two more against Toronto.

When he hit his fifth of the year on April 22, it was the eighth of his young MLB career. According to STATS, LLC, with eight homers through his first 17 career games, Mancini tied the major league record for most all-time through 17 career games. He joined Toronto's Carlos Delgado (1993-94) and Colorado's Trevor Story (2016).

But a few games followed in which Mancini struggled. During a four-game stretch heading into the recent series at Boston, he went 1-for-16 with nine strikeouts.

A player who keeps an even keel, Mancini was not getting too carried away with his early-season success, and likewise didn't let a few unproductive at-bats affect him too much, either.

He indeed has started to see many more breaking balls and off-speed pitches, and that was no surprise.

"Definitely, yeah (I expected that)," he said yesterday. "I've seen a lot more off-speed, changeups especially, so I've tried to make some adjustments there. I knew that would happen. Once you get a certain number of at-bats, people get to know you.

"Sometimes I have gotten a little overaggressive and I've been cutting off my swing slightly. Just ever so slightly to the point where it can be tough to hit off-speed, but I've been working a lot on it. That can make the swing get in and out of the zone too quick, instead of staying through the ball.

"You go through that and it happened to me last year a few times. In the minors it happened every year. There were periods where I thought I should be making better contact. But I've felt better the last few games up there and feel like I'm seeing the ball better."

In the recent series at Fenway Park, Mancini went 3-for-6 with a double and two RBIs, and then came last night's three-RBI game. He has not been playing every day but said that has not been a problem for him in trying to stay sharp.

"I mean, I don't see too big a difference of playing every day or not," he said. "When I'm in the game, it feels the same. In college we didn't play every day. I'm used to it. Doing the same thing (with your routine) every day is important whether you are playing or not."

Mancini said that, depending on the pitcher, he might sometimes look for an off-speed pitch on the first one of an at-bat. But he quickly added that doing that is rare. You can't hit a fastball while looking off-speed, so you can't guess breaking ball too much. Whether he is on a hitting tear or not, he knows it's a long season, and that is where keeping that even keel serves him well.

"That is something I've worked on, and it's tough. You don't like not playing up to your ability. But staying even keel is the most important thing. I said at the beginning of the year that baseball will humble you quickly. You have to ride out the highs and then shorten up the timeframe it takes to get back on track," he said.

If he was off the track for a few games, he's back on it. Last night was the latest example.