Mullins goes 30/30, Elias on MASN and more

What a moment for center fielder Cedric Mullins last night as he became the Orioles' first player to hit 30 or more homers while stealing 30 or more bases in a single season.

His three-run shot in the second inning was an important homer too, a three-run shot that fans call a Weaver. It gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead on Texas. They let the game get away, but the moment didn't. Mullins got a curtain call and then his teammates stayed back in the dugout as he took the field and stood alone for fans to cheer on this night.

He stands alone in many respects this year.

Mullins is the 43rd player to register a 30-30 season and the first since Christian Yelich and Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2019. Mookie Betts and José Ramírez were the last American League players to do it, in 2018.

"It hasn't happened here," manager Brandon Hyde said. "There have been a lot of great players who have put on an Orioles uniform and nobody had ever gone 30/30. That shows you how special that is. There are Hall of Fame players who have come through Baltimore, a history of great hitters, and for Cedric to do that, you don't see it very often, so it's unbelievable."

Mullins also became part of this exclusive club: He is the 12th player in major league history to have a season of 35 doubles, five triples, 30 homers and 30 steals. All previous 11 seasons happened between 1992 and 2018.

Here are the previous 11 seasons, listed from the earliest to the most recent. We list the four stats in order by homers, doubles, triples and steals.

1992 - Barry Bonds of Pittsburgh: 34, 36, 5, 39.
1996 - Ellis Burks of Colorado: 40, 45, 8, 32
1997 - Raul Mondesi of the Los Angeles Dodgers: 30, 42, 5, 32
1998 - Alex Rodriguez of Seattle: 42, 35, 5, 46
2003 - Alfonso Soriano of the New York Yankees: 38, 36, 5, 35
2004 - Carlos Beltran of Kansas City and Houston: 38, 36, 9, 42
2007 - Jimmy Rollins of Philadelphia: 30, 38, 20, 41
2008 - Grady Sizemore of Cleveland: 33, 39, 5, 38
2011 - Jacoby Ellsbury of Boston: 32, 46, 5, 39
2011 - Ryan Braun of Milwaukee: 33, 38, 6, 33
2018 - Mookie Betts of Boston: 32, 47, 5, 30

Mullins (26 years old) and teammate Ryan Mountcastle (24 years old) are the third pair of O's hitters age 26 or younger to hit 30 or more homers apiece in the same season, and first since 24-year-old Manny Machado (33 homers) and 25-year-old Jonathan Schoop (32) in 2017.

What a player. What a season.

Elias' comments on Rodriguez and Rutschman: It seems unlikely that top Orioles prospects Adley Rutschman and Grayson Rodriguez would both begin the 2022 season on the Orioles roster. But during the MASN telecast last night, O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias joined the broadcast. He said this is possible.

"Grayson just completed a tremendous season and is a consensus top pitching prospect in baseball," said Elias. "He's had a very successful season. Made every start. ... He is going to be in major league spring training next year. When you faced Double-A the way that he did, I think you've put yourself in the legitimate competition to make the team out of spring training. So, we'll have to see how he looks coming in, but we couldn't be more excited to have him.

"And likewise for Adley. Adley was the top overall pick in 2019 and everybody knows his story. But he missed all of last year because of the pandemic. He was at the alternate site for a couple of months, but really played no organized minor league baseball games, despite being the top overall pick the previous year. So, we wanted him to get a full professional season under his belt and he's done that. He's been tremendous at Double-A and now at Triple-A. Huge numbers. Player of the Year type of year that he's had, and the defense has been spectacular.

"So both of those guys, it couldn't have gone any better. They are both going to be in major league spring training next year and will be central parts of major league spring training. So we'll just see how that goes."

Tough ending for Baysox: For those who have followed the Double-A Bowie Baysox all year, through a 21-5 start and 12-2 finish and into the playoffs, it was disappointing to see it end in such fashion last night. But it did.

The Baysox led Akron 5-0 to the eighth inning of Game 3 of the best-of-five Double-A Northeast Championship Series. But Bowie allowed four runs in the eighth and Akron scored two in a walk-off win in the last of the ninth, 6-5. Akron completed a three-game sweep.

Thus ends an outstanding season for the Baysox. We ran a lot of Bowie stories in in this space the last few weeks, and I've got a few more coming. We were burning it up there in the last couple of weeks with the interviews, so more to come.

Triple-A Norfolk blanked Charlotte 7-0 last night as right-handers Kyle Bradish and Cody Sedlock combined on the shutout. Bradish allowed two hits in five innings to improve to 5-5 with a 4.41 ERA. Over his past three games he has yielded just one earned run in 15 innings. Sedlock threw four scoreless innings on three hits to get a save.

Kyle Stowers went 4-for-5 with four singles and is batting .317 with an .888 OPS for Norfolk.

The first player in Orioles history to reach 30/30, and the first player in baseball to do it this year.@cedmull30 has put together one of the greatest seasons we've ever seen in Birdland. pic.twitter.com/KRSIA6lNv2

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 24, 2021