O's Colton Cowser on Coby Mayo back to farm and on Red Sox series

O’s outfielder Colton Cowser has been a Coby Mayo teammate in the majors and minors. They spent a lot of time together on the Triple-A roster. But today, less than 24 hours he picked up his first MLB hit, Mayo was optioned back to Norfolk.

He went 1-for-17 with the Orioles, getting his only hit in the fifth inning last night. He hit a 1-0 slider from Washington lefty DJ Herz for a single into left field. He walked and scored two innings later.

It was his sixth big league game and it was the second time he had reached base twice and he scored his second MLB run.

He leaves to go back to Triple-A, where he was batting .301 with an OPS of .961 and 20 homers over 77 games.

With the Orioles, Mayo hit .059 and fanned 10 times.

Cowser also was optioned back after his first try at the big leagues. Today he said he will be soon reaching out to his friend in the next few days to provide some encouragement.

“I think that Coby is a great player,” said Cowser. “Really good kid, really mature. You know, I think it’s baseball. It’s a different environment coming up in the middle of a divisional race, trying to make a push for the playoffs. No matter how much people say it’s the same game it’s not between Triple-A and here. It does get to the point where it can feel the same, but that can take a little time.”

Cowser knows all about that. He was called up last year on July 5 and got off to a bit of a better start than Mayo, going 2-for-10 in three games. But his last O’s game last year was Aug. 11. In 26 games he hit just .115 with a .433 OPS. Now he is a Rookie of the Year contender. 

“Yeah, I think you are really trying to show what you can do, given the situation you are put in. Sometimes you can get out of your element, get out of your game. I was told this last year, it’s never a bad thing to come up to the big leagues and experience some failure. But he had what 16 or 17 at-bat? That’s nothing. You know I have all the faith in the world in him," he said.

Tonight the O's (71-50) turn their attention back to an American League East opponent. They begin play 1/2 game back of New York for the division lead and are hosting third-place Boston which is 63-56 and 7.5 games out.

The Red Sox have lost ground by going 10-14 in the second half. They were 4.5 games out at the All-Star break.

The Orioles are 26-13 this year in division games and 5-1 against Boston. 

“I think we’re going to take it like any other series," Cowser said of the four-game set with the Sox. "In-division can be treated differently sometimes, but I think that, what our goal as a team is just to get back to playing good baseball. And, you know, we are going to do whatever we can to do that. And whatever the results are, they are. I don’t think we are going to try and do too much or put too much pressure on the situation. We’re just going to go out there and play."