Mancini on Yaz, Blaine Knight on Grayson Rodriguez

When the Orioles host the San Francisco Giants this weekend, a few members of the Orioles 2013 draft class, to include Austin Wynns and Trey Mancini, plan to get together with the 14th-round pick that year. That is outfielder Mike Yastrzemski.

A non-roster invitee to O's spring training this year, Yaz went 3-for-18 (.167) in spring games, was optioned to minors camp at Twin Lakes park and on March 23 was traded by the Orioles to the Giants for pitcher Tyler Herb, who is 3-2 with a 5.06 ERA for Triple-A Norfolk.

For the Giants, Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, produced a batting average of .316 and OPS of 1.090 in Triple-A. Then, after 703 career minor league games and 2,600 at-bats, he finally got his first call to the major leagues on Saturday.

He is 3-for-15 in his first four MLB games, getting all three hits Sunday versus Arizona. When he was playing his first game on Saturday, several Orioles were watching him play from the clubhouse in Colorado.

That included Mancini. The two are very close friends and Mancini lived with Yaz and his wife in the winter a few years ago in Nashville. They worked out at Yastrzemski's alma mater, Vanderbilt. Now Mancini has a home there and he and Yastrzemski are somewhat inseparable in the offseason. The two played together often on the Baltimore farm and were teammates on the 2015 Double-A Bowie Eastern League championship team.

"It was incredible," said Mancini. "It was almost like if I had a brother and he got called up. It was that big of a deal. Mike has worked harder than just about anybody I've ever played with. Just grinded it out through the minors and never gave up. He got the ultimate reward for that this weekend and nobody deserves it more than he does. He has always been a major leaguer in my eyes and I'm glad that came to fruition this weekend."

Somehow through all the years, some ups and downs and a few injuries, Yastrzemski kept chasing his big league dream.

"He is an extremely self-motivated individual," said Mancini. "He loves the game and plays it the right way and plays hard. I think it was easy for him to keep going and I think he never doubted he could make it.

"He was universally loved by everyone in this organization. Our 2013 draft class is so close. Me, (Chance) Sisco, Wynns, (Jimmy) Yacabonis are I think the only ones still with the Orioles. But there is a huge group of us that had success from that class and we've always been really close and support each other. So, to see Mike make it up is pretty special for all of us."

Special pitcher at Delmarva: Speaking of special, one right-hander has been one of the best pitchers on the Orioles farm this year, one that a scout says has "definite top of rotation talent." That scout was talking about 19-year-old Grayson Rodriguez, the club's 2018 first-round pick, taken No. 11 overall out of a Texas high school.

In eight starts for first-place Single-A Delmarva, Rodriguez has gone 6-0 with a 1.47 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. In 43 innings he has walked 12 and fanned 61. He's been dominant at times.

When he was at Camden Yards earlier this week, I asked Single-A Frederick pitcher Blaine Knight about the young right-hander on the Shorebirds. They were teammates earlier this year until Knight's recent promotion to the Carolina League.

"He's just good. All the stuff plays," said Knight of Rodriguez. "He throws all his pitches for strikes. He's very composed for a young guy, that's the biggest thing. And he's very mature on the mound for his age. You don't see that a lot from guys his age. That's big for him. Nothing bothers him. He goes out and mixes pitches well, locates well. He does really well with all his stuff and it's really good stuff.

"He's very coachable and is always willing to ask questions. I talked to him a lot and a lot of the older guys that have been in the organization longer have talked to him a lot. He takes it in and learns from it. He learns quick and makes adjustments quickly. He's something else. He's special and I think he's going to play for a really long time."

Tough night at the Yard: The Orioles bullpen allowed homers in the eighth and ninth last night as a 2-1 lead turned into a 4-2 Orioles' loss. Detroit's John Hicks homered off Mychal Givens for a 2-2 tie in the eighth and a Brandon Dixon two-run shot in the ninth off Branden Kline made it 4-2.

The Orioles are now 16-4 when leading after seven innings. O's pitchers have allowed a major league-leading 36 runs in the ninth inning. Baltimore pitchers have an ERA of 5.95 in the eighth inning and 8.17 in the ninth this season.

Lefty John Means produced his third quality start but the blown late 2-1 lead cost him his sixth win. Means allowed three hits and one run over six innings. He has allowed exactly one earned run in six of his nine starts. Means reduced his home ERA to 1.53 in seven games.

Renato Núñez drilled an RBI double at 112 mph in the first inning last night. He takes the team lead with 32 RBIs and has driven in a run in seven of his last eight games, driving in a total of 12 runs in that span. Núñez is batting .361 (13-for-36) over his past 10 games.

The Orioles (17-39) are off today and host San Francisco for three games starting Friday at Oriole Park, where they are 7-21 this season.