After home run robbery Sunday, Henry Urrutia talks about his improved defense

Does Henry Urrutia have ESP? Can he predict the future?

Yesterday, it seemed he could. Urrutia is a player that, right or wrong, has had a reputation of being a sub-par defensive outfielder. But he made a couple of nice plays in left field yesterday including one where he went over the wall to rob Danny Valencia of a home run in the seventh inning.

Before the game today, Urrutia told me that yesterday he sensed early in the game that he might get the chance to make a great play.

"It's funny, yesterday in the first inning of the game I was thinking I have to do something good today for the team. In my mind, I was seeing that before it happened. I was thinking that the whole game. When it happened I felt really happy. I have to show to everybody that I can play the outfield. Wherever the teams needs me, I have to show I can do it," Urrutia said.

"That was a better catch than I thought it was," manager Buck Showalter said today. "So many times guys get into the fence and the fence retards their ability to jump. He got pretty good extension on that ball."

Urrutia, getting his second shot in the big leagues after playing in 24 games in 2013, is back in left field tonight. The 28-year-old from Cuba said he worked hard every day in the minors on his defense.

"I've tried to get better there," he said. "Every day we work with RJ (Triple-A Norfolk manager Ron Johnson) taking fly balls, ground balls, throwing to bases. I think the consistency of doing that led to results.

"But in my opinion, I don't think my defense was bad. When I talked with (Orioles outfield coach) Wayne Kirby in the spring, he told me 'Your defense is not bad. Keep working.'

"Sometimes I think it is more mental. If you keep hearing you can't do that, at some point maybe you believe that. But I've had people on my side tell me the defense is better, so now I feel really comfortable out there," Urrutia said.

After going 0-for-3 for the Orioles on Saturday, Urrutia went 2-for-5 with three RBIs in yesterday's game. In one game he drove in more runs than he did in 58 O's at-bats in 2013 when he had two RBIs.

Urrutia brought a hot bat with him from Norfolk to Baltimore. He was batting .317 since the All-Star break and batting .318 in 11 Triple-A games this month with a slugging percentage of .545 and a .918 OPS. In his last six Norfolk games, he went 10-for-25 with two homers and three RBIs.

So he's back in the lineup tonight, batting eighth and again in left field. Maybe he'll even get another chance to impact the game on defense.