Mancini on getting great support and Hardy and Trumbo on Mancini

Here is something Trey Mancini hasn't done yet - hit a single. So the O's 24-year-old prospect from Notre Dame is not perfect.

But he is putting his name in the major league and team record books. When he hit a three-run homer off Boston's David Price on Thursday night, Mancini became the first Orioles player to homer for his first two major league hits.

Last night featured another Mancini home run. According to STATS, LLC., he is the third player in major league history (since 1913) to homer in the first three starts of his career, joining Arizona's Carlos Quentin in 2006 and Colorado's Trevor Story this season.

Mancini is pretty excited about his great start but maybe the most significant thing that has happened to him in the last few days is the outpouring of congratulations and well wishes he has been getting.

"The amount of the support I have gotten from the fans and community and how many of my really close family have come out to watch (has been great)" Mancini said. "Not that that is a surprise but that is probably the best part of the week for me."

Mancini has a few fans in the Orioles' clubhouse as well.

"He's got a great swing," shortstop J.J. Hardy said. "I hadn't seen a whole lot of him. Spring training here and there. It's been really impressive. He's got an idea up there. A really good idea."

"It's great," Mark Trumbo said. "Great guy and he's having a lot of fun, too, you can see that. It's been really impressive. He has faced some real quality pitching. It's a huge contribution. Looks like he is a real weapon against left-handed pitching. He looks really polished."

Mancini is 4-for-11 with a double, three homers and five RBIs. Yep, still looking for that single. Against left-handed pitchers he is 4-for-7 with a double, three homers and an OPS of 2.571.

The Orioles' offense has not exactly broken out in this series but they scored six in last night's 6-1 win. That is the Orioles' most runs since getting six Sept. 15 versus Tampa Bay. Last night they ended a run of seven consecutive games scoring three or fewer runs.

Why was the offense better last night?

"Couple of big hits that we hadn't been getting lately," Hardy said. "I think with that walk-off the night before I think we kind of got that monkey off our back and were able to relax a little bit. Just go out there and put good quality at-bats together."

The Orioles moved back into possession of a playoff spot last night, moving a 1/2-game ahead of Detroit for the second American League wild card spot with seven games to play.

"We know it's going to come down to, probably the last game," Hardy said. "And we're excited about it, it's going to be a lot of fun."

Former O's lefty helps current one: Somewhere Mike Flanagan must have been smiling last night hearing one Wade Miley postgame quote. After pitching 8 2/3 innings, allowing just the one run, he referenced a recent conversation he had with a former Oriole lefty and the quote was one we heard Flanagan use often.

"You put pressure on yourself," Miley said. "I talked to (O's minor league instructor) Scott McGregor the other day in right field for 25 or 30 minutes. We just talked about, there is such a thing as trying too hard. Try easier is what he told me. That kind of stuck to me. Rather than try to be max effort every time, just relax and execute pitches."

Flanagan was known for many great things during his days as an Oriole player, coach and member of the front office. He often told young players to "try easier." Last night it worked for the veteran Miley and Flanny had to like that.

Miley's 11 strikeouts Saturday night were the most by an O's pitcher this year. It also tied Miley's career high set when he pitched for Arizona, on May 27, 2014 against San Diego.

A few more notes: The Orioles are 13-6 in interleague games this year. That is their most wins ever in one season against the National League. Arizona is 5-14 against the AL.

The Orioles did not have a quality start on the first eight games of this homestand that ends today. But they've now gotten two in a row in this series. Yovani Gallardo and Miley combined to pitch 14 2/3 innings allowing three runs. O's pitchers in the two games this weekend have given up three runs on 16 hits with two walks to 24 strikeouts.

Manny Machado recorded his 53rd multi-hit game last night, going 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the first inning.

The Orioles are still struggling with runners in scoring position. They have gone 3-for-20 (.150) in this series and are 4-for-45 (.111) with RISP over their past eight games.

Trumbo's homer last night has him on the cusp of a tie for fifth-place on the Orioles' single-season home run list:

53 - Chris Davis, 2013
50 - Brady Anderson, 1996
49 - Frank Robinson, 1966
47 - Chris Davis, 2015
46 - Jim Gentile 1961
45 - Mark Trumbo, 2016

Trumbo has homered in both games of this series and this is the 11^th time this season he has homered in back-to-back games.