Mulling over the use of Mullins (and more from last night's win)

SEATTLE - Cedric Mullins will return to the Orioles lineup tonight with the Mariners starting right-hander Mike Leake. Manager Buck Showalter already confirmed it yesterday when pressed for reasons why the rookie was missing again from last night's lineup.

Mullins continues to sit against left-handers even though he bats from both sides of the plate, and fans on social media are growing more agitated. They might form a mob. Hide the pitchforks or replace them with plasticware.

Though his hip isn't 100 percent healed, it doesn't prevent Mullins from playing. However, Showalter is using opposing southpaw starters to get right-handed-hitting John Andreoli in the lineup.

Of course, Andreoli could have played left field last night with Mullins staying in center, but Showalter chose Joey Rickard to play center. Rickard walked and singled in a 5-3 victory over the Mariners.

Mullins pinch-hit for Andreoli last night after right-hander Adam Warren replaced lefty Wade LeBlanc. If this isn't a platoon, it's doing a marvelous impression of one.

Renato Núñez led off the seventh inning with a game-tying home run and Mullins lined a single into left field and later scored. Mullins faced left-hander James Pazos in the eighth, turned to the other side, and walked after catcher David Freitas dropped a foul pop up.

(You may remember Freitas as the player-to-be-named-later in the Jim Johnson trade with the Athletics in 2013).

Mullins needs to prove that he can be productive against left-handers in order to prevent the Orioles from suggesting that he abandon switch-hitting, but it won't happen while he's on the bench.

In 21 major league plate appearances against left-handers, Mullins has collected only three hits and struck out nine times while pretty much mimicking his minor league splits. He's 18-for-60 (.300) with six doubles, three home runs and seven strikeouts versus right-handers.

Mullins is 1-for-14 with five strikeouts this month to lower his average to .273 with a .809 OPS.

Craig Gentry gave Showalter another right-handed-hitting option for the outfield until the Orioles designated him for assignment on Friday. There are no updates on his status.

Meanwhile, Danny Valencia remains unsigned after the Orioles designated him for assignment on Aug. 10 to make room for Mullins and later released him. A contender hasn't made a move for him despite his career .312/370/.494 slash line against left-handers.

Leake has allowed 182 hits in 165 innings to lead the majors. Since shutting out the Athletics on two hits over eight innings, he's surrendered a combined 11 runs and 18 hits over 10 1/3 innings in his last two starts.

In a June 28 start at Camden Yards, Leake held the Orioles to two runs and five hits in seven innings in a 4-2 win. Manny Machado and Chris Davis homered in the fourth.

Leake has made two career starts against the Orioles and allowed nine runs and 12 hits in 11 innings without a decision. Jonathan Villar is 4-for-8 with a double and five walks against him.

Villar tried to advance to second base last night on Rickard's fly ball to left field in the seventh inning and got caught in a rundown by slamming on the brakes and retreating toward first. Meanwhile, Breyvic Valera advanced to third and raced home while Villar avoided the tag.

"Yeah, we've been working on that all spring training," Showalter said. "First of all, that's kind of a mistake that gets rewarded, quite frankly. You shouldn't go on that ball and a lot of people just give up. But he stopped and got the rundown going, and that's baseball moxie. How do you draw that up?

"That's a feel play at third base. I'm talking about, that's the more impressive part of it. And came out smelling like a rose. Some people call it aggressive, some people call it reckless. We need a little bit of that, quite frankly."

Alex Cobb turned in his seventh quality start in eight outings by holding the Mariners to one run in six innings. His ERA is down to 4.97.

"What was good to see was a split that didn't split and he didn't throw it in his pocket," Showalter said. "He knew he was going to need it with those four left-handed hitters, so he found a way. Alex is showing why I keep saying he's going to be a good pitcher for us. He has been. He got his ERA under 5. He's come a long way, a long way with a lot of innings."

Mychal Givens notched his sixth save by getting the last five outs. A nice recovery after the Whit Merrifield walk-off home run Saturday in Kansas City.

"Mike got back on the horse. I know he was champing to get back out there," Showalter said. "But it started with, I think the whole game it gets forgotten, is another good outing by Alex Cobb. I mean, you know what's on the line for Seattle. You know they're trying to operate on all cylinders.

"I thought Renato Núñez, the home run finally got us thinking some positive things. A couple things defensively that we've got to do better. We've got to turn that double play and we had funky route in left field, but there were some good things, too."

Núñez tied the game 1-1 with his leadoff home run off Warren in the seventh.

"Yeah, that was a momentum changer for sure," said Trey Mancini. "Noony has put a lot of good at-bats together, so yeah, it felt good to tie the game up there and put a few more up."

Mancini, who had three more hits and an RBI, was glad to see Cobb rewarded for the effort.

"I think, more than anything, it was great looking at the scoreboard the inning after he came out and seeing a four spot," Mancini said. "He pitched so well tonight and it felt really good to get him a win there.

"With this offense, you know that that can happen at any point. Unfortunately, it really hasn't happened on this road trip until (last night), but it felt good to get a win there, and hopefully we can continue it the rest of these next four games."

Cobb was down 1-0 on Robinson Canó's home run in the first inning, but the four-run seventh made him a winner.

"You know, there's so much that we have to deal with as pitchers on the mound," he said. "Trying to hold a really good offense. They've really done a lot of damage to me in the past couple seasons, including this year, that you've got your hands full trying to limit runs, limit damage. You look up at the end of the day, at the end of the outing, and see where you're at. But at no time throughout the game am I changing my approach unless it's a huge blowout one way or the other.

"While the starter's in there every run is precious and you try to limit as much as you can and keep your team in the ballgame, and it really doesn't dictate how I pitch."

How he's pitching is significantly better than the first half.

"I think there's so much else going on behind the scenes that I'm working on that at a certain point, obviously, I want to pitch well, pitch good, but I stopped worrying so much about the results and try to get myself right, and I was able to do that," he said.

"It's unfortunate the year that we're having, but I've been able to really focus on myself and try to get better for next year. Through the course of that, some good stretches have gone on and I'm happy with that. It shows progress. But the ultimate goal is to get back to feeling 100 percent comfortable on the mound, mechanically. This is the only way to do it, to go out there and pitch and compete and learn things along the way. So, I'm happy with the trend I've been on."