How did Mancini improve at the plate in the second half?

For Trey Mancini to turn around his season, he had to go back to hitting the ball the other way.

The change in direction returned him to normal. Or as close as he was going to get this summer.

The contrasting splits on Mancini are as pronounced as anyone in 2018, though he reversed Dylan Bundy and finished on a much higher note. After placing third in Rookie of the Year voting in the American League the previous summer, Mancini slashed .216/.292/.363 with 12 home runs over 91 games in the first half while the Orioles took their hard spill into last place. He batted .276/.307/.484 with 12 home runs over 65 games following the All-Star break.

There was a little more slippage in September, but Mancini hit .291/.319/.555 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs in 28 games the previous month for his most productive stretch of the season.

Separate conversations with a veteran teammate and video coordinator and further reflection on how pitchers worked him conspired to rescue Mancini, though he still experienced a significant drop with an overall slash line of .242/.299/.416 compared to .293/.338/.488 in 2017. He duplicated the 24 home runs, but his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) fell from .352 to .285, according to FanGraphs.

"Teams adjust," Mancini said earlier this month. "There are such smart people in this game and a book gets written about you and you've got to learn how to adjust. And in the first half of the season, for whatever reason, I definitely struggled for a little while there.

"It's your job to claw your way out of it and I didn't do the best job of that. Luckily, I did at the All-Star break. I was able to look back at things and try to put some things in perspective and then I played like myself the second half. But after going through that, you never want it to happen again, so I'm going to use that experience to motivate me to not let it happen again.

"And one other thing, from a more technical standpoint that really helped me out right before the All-Star break was I approached Mike Silverman, one of our advanced scouting guys about what the difference was between '17 and '18 and pretty much what it boiled down to was I was not swinging at nearly as many first-pitch fastball strikes. And because of that, my ground ball rate was up to the left side of the infield. I was rolling over a lot of off-speed late in the count. So, in the second half I just focused on hitting the first good pitch that I saw and getting back to being a really aggressive hitter, because that's just who I am."

Mark Trumbo asserted his clubhouse leadership, in a typically quiet manner, by approaching Mancini with an unsolicited batting tip. One simple question posed to him about pitchers working him inside or off the plate.

"I remember Mark Trumbo right around the All-Star break, he went to me and said, 'When is the last time that you've been jammed?' And I was like, 'I guess it's been a long time.' And you would think that it's not a good thing, but for me it is," Mancini said.

"I mean, a lot of hits that you get are, you get beat on a pitch but your swing path is good enough to where you can just push it over the infield and get those bloop hits. Those things are a 20-30 point difference in your batting average. I was rolling over balls, hitting them off the end, but I was not getting jammed. I definitely got back to that right-center approach that was always my M.O. growing up."

In a lineup of pull-happy hitters on a team that tends to live and die by the longball, Mancini possesses the ability to spray it to all fields. He can offer a contrast wherever he's slotted.

Health certainly could have factored into Mancini's prolonged slump. Mancini jammed his right knee in late April while chasing Yonder Alonso's fly ball near the seats in foul territory, making him day-to-day and further limiting his mobility and ability to drive the ball.

The knee was a hindrance and led to some bad habits, though Mancini is hesitant to offer it as an excuse.

"It was for a little bit. I'm not going to lie. But at the end of the day it's my call whether I think I can go on the field or not," he said.

"In hindsight, I might have handled that a little differently, but I had run into the wall the year before. I ran into the cushion part of the wall and then a few days later it felt better and this past year it just kind of lingered on for longer than I would have hoped. And I think it did create some bad habits for me at the plate.

"That's my back leg whenever I'm hitting, so even when it did start to feel better it took a little bit of time to get used to my swing and how I do things because I kind of tried to overcorrect a little bit. So, going through that, I know what to do in the future if that happens."

Adjustments in the field also are needed from Mancini as he tries to improve his play in the corner. He had eight outfield assists, flashing an arm that the organization underrated a few years ago, but his defensive runs saved sank from minus-1 in 2017 to minus-12 - a total that ranked as the second-worst on the team among outfielders behind Adam Jones' minus-25, according to FanGraphs. His ultimate zone rating of minus-8.3 also was second-worst behind Jones' minus-12.

The solution? Continue putting in the same hard work that's defined his transition or find more starts for him at first base.

New Orioles manager Brandon Hyde can figure it out.

"I'm doing my normal agility and running drills, trying to just continue to improve," Mancini said. "I still think what I need to improve the most is getting reads right off the bat. That first step is so important.

"I'm working out there and I'm working at first, too. It is my natural position, it's what I played my whole life, so like I always said, wherever they want to put me, I'll go out there and put my whole heart and soul into it."