Another tough loss caps eventful day in Birdland

When the local nine lets a lead get away in the eighth inning and gets tied and in the ninth inning and loses, let's just say there have been better days in Birdland. But it was an active day and certainly not without some potentially very positive developments.

* Let's start with Ryan Mountcastle. He hit two homers and each one gave the Orioles the lead. It looked like he had some guy chasing balls out near the highway beyond left field. His first homer went 420 feet and his second 410 feet. He joins Manny Machado in 2012, Jim Fuller in 1973 and Curt Blefary in 1965 as Orioles that have produced a multi-homer game within their first eight major league games.

Mountcastle is now batting .393/.469/.679 with two doubles, two homers and five RBIs, along with an OPS of 1.147. He's batting .455 (5-for-11) when hitting a curveball and homered yesterday off a changeup and a two-seam fastball. An equal opportunity destroyer.

He looks very comfortable in the box, and while he has chased a few pitches, he's also shown an ability to hit to all fields. He looks like a more complete hitter than the scouting reports gave him credit for.

* Left-hander Keegan Akin makes his first major league start today. The trade of Tommy Milone not only netted the Orioles two players to be named later from Atlanta, but opened a rotation spot for the 25-year-old Akin, the club's second-round draft pick in 2016. It's time to see what he can and no reason to not throw him out there every five days for the remaining 27 games.

Akin put up modest stats in 2019 at Triple-A Norfolk - going 6-7 with a 4.73 ERA - but it was a year where the club strongly encouraged him to become a more complete pitcher. He threw fewer fastballs and more secondary pitches as part of a pitch development plan. Now we begin to see if he is a three-pitch pitcher at the big league level.

During the winter, Triple-A Norfolk manager Gary Kendall provided this scouting report on Akin and how he worked on those secondary pitches last season with the Tides.

"There were not many times in his past at Double-A or below that he threw 3-2 changeups or 3-2 breaking balls. He would throw a fastball and get it over." said Kendall. "But now he's developing as a pitcher and he's not as predictable. He is utilizing what he has with his three pitches. I think he is getting a lot better, but that did increase his walks."

Kendall saw Akin pitch often at 92-93 mph, sometimes touching the mid-90s. The skipper said Akin has plenty of fastball to succeed.

"His fastballs are usually around that velocity, but his fastball has good riding action," he said. "It has some late finish in the strike zone. It can be better than others with similar velocity. His arm is so easy and the ball explodes at the plate and can look quicker than 92, 93 (mph)."

So both Akin and Jorge López entered the rotation in the last two days and fans now get a look at two pitchers that could be around for a few years. López rolled through the first nine hitters yesterday on just 26 pitches, throwing a fastball that hit 95-96 mph. Two walks in the fifth inning marred his pitching line, but during his 63-pitch outing, you can see why the Orioles believe López has potential.

The trades: It was a busy day on the trade front and more deals could happen before today's 4 p.m. Eastern time deadline.

The O's added two players to be named from Atlanta for Milone. They got two minor leaguer infielders and a player to be named later from Colorado for reliever Mychal Givens. Rumored to be traded just about every year he has been here, it finally happened to Givens on Sunday.

The O's added middle infielder Terrin Vavra, 23, who was the South Atlantic League MVP at Asheville in 2019. In 102 games, he batted .318 with a league-leading .409 on base percentage and .489 slugging percentage. Vavra hit 32 doubles and 10 homers, scored 79 runs, stole 18 bases and drove in 52 runs in the South Atlantic League. In 146 career games, not higher than Single-A ball, he has hit .313/.405/.483 with an OPS of 888.

A third-round draft pick by Colorado in 2018 out of the University of Minnesota, he will join the O's 60-man player pool and report to the Bowie alternate site. He is considered to have advanced plate discipline skills, but some scouts have questioned his arm. He has made 56 career starts at second base and 81 at shortstop.

Before the deal, Vavra was ranked as the Rockies' No. 7 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 17 by Baseball America. After the trade, he was listed as the O's No. 12 by MLBPipeline.com. Vavra is the son of Joe Vavra, the Detroit Tigers hitting coach.

Speaking of sons, the O's also added Tyler Nevin, the son of Phil Nevin, the Yankees' third base coach. The younger Nevin is a 23-year-old right-handed hitter. He was a supplemental first-round draft pick, taken No. 38 overall in 2015 by Colorado. In his career, he has made 196 starts at first base, 101 at third base and 10 in the outfield. O's executive Mike Elias projected he would start at Norfolk at first base next season.

In 366 career games, none yet above Double-A, Nevin has hit .286/.362/.441 with an OPS of .802. He has been rated as high as the Rockies' No. 6 prospect by Baseball America. At the time of the deal, he was No. 13 by Baseball America and No. 14 by MLBPipeline.com, which now has him as the O's No. 22 prospect. Nevin is on the Orioles' 40-man roster.

Three-homer games: Mountcastle batted one more time after his second homer in the sixth and he flied out. He is the first Oriole to hit his first two homers in the same game since Machado on Aug. 10, 2012 against Kansas City.

The Orioles had a three-homer game last year when Pedro Severino became the first O's catcher to ever do that. He homered three times on June 4 versus Texas. There have been 23 instances of a three-homer game by 17 players in Baltimore Orioles history.

Boog Powell was the first Oriole ever to do this on Aug. 10, 1963. Powell had a trio of three homer games and so did Eddie Murray. Machado and Chris Davis each have a pair of three-homer games.

Here is the list of Orioles to do this once: Albert Belle, Bobby Grich, Cal Ripken Jr., Curt Blefary, Dan Ford, Don Baylor, Juan Beníquez, Lee Lacy, Nick Markakis, Paul Blair, Randy Milligan, Roberto Alomar and Severino.

Mountcastle has hit three homers in a game on the farm. He did it May 26, 2017 for Single-A Frederick.

When getting your first Major League home run just isn't enough... you get 2. pic.twitter.com/bhq1FS0jFm

-- Baltimore Orioles 😷 (@Orioles) August 30, 2020