Ryan Mountcastle's bat perks up, plus other notes

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

June 02, 2021, 8:05pm

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As the Orioles take a day off today, the collective mood around Birdland is a little better after back-to-back wins by the O's and more winning on the farm to add to that.

The Orioles have been waiting for Ryan Mountcastle to get hot after his slow start and maybe we are seeing the beginnings of an extended stretch of good hitting for him now.

He has put together back-to-back 2-for-4 nights in the consecutive wins over the Twins. His booming three-run homer to center in the seventh opened a 6-1 lead last night and was a hit the Orioles have not been getting, manager Brandon Hyde said after the game. A hit that both broke open the game and made sure the O's would not get a steady diet of an opponent's late-game, flame-throwing, high-end relievers.

It was nice to play from ahead.

Over the last nine games, Mountcastle has six extra-base hits. In this span, he is batting .323 (10-for-31) with two doubles, a triple, three homers and nine RBIs. When this stretch began, Mountcastle was batting .221 with a .577 OPS. Now those numbers are .238/.665. If he can add another 100 OPS points over the next 10 games or so, that will be more like it.

The Orioles have seldom had any games this year or stretches of games when Mountcastle, Trey Mancini and Anthony Santander have all been healthy and productive. Maybe that time is now at hand.

Mullins playing outstanding defense: He's been igniting the Orioles offense at the top of the lineup all year, but the conversation before last night's game against Minnesota was still about Cedric Mullins' incredible defensive play Tuesday night.

Mullins made a remarkable catch to rob Nelson Cruz of extra bases and an RBI in the top of the third, sprawling onto the warning track with a defensive gem of the highest magnitude.

Mullins ranks in the top 10 percent in the majors in Outs Above Average and in the top 30 percent in Outfielder Jump. Then he uses sprint speed that ranks in the top 12 percent of baseball to run everything down in the outfield gaps. Hyde saw him as a Gold Glove contender during last season and that opinion has not changed.

"I didn't know if he could get better," Hyde said via Zoom. "For me, he was flawless defensively last year. He's playing the same way this year.

"That play (Tuesday) night, after rewatching it, that's a special play just to go that far. But not only the distance that he went, it's the angle, the wall, the warning track, the athleticism in the slide to be able to stay safe and make the catch. You don't see that all the time. Cedric is playing Gold Glove defense once again this year and really proud of how he's playing center field for us.

"You can see the leadership. The leadership qualities are just so much different now than it was a couple years ago, what he's like out in the outfield. He commands our defense in the middle of the field and it's been fun to watch him develop and grow."

Another good night on the farm: Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was the winning pitcher in his Double-A debut last night as Bowie won 2-1 at Hartford. Rodriguez allowed four hits and one run with two walks and eight strikeouts. He was touching 100 mph on the stadium radar gun. Bowie improved to 19-5 and has won six in a row.

Gunnar Henderson hit his eighth homer as low Single-A Delmarva beat Fredericksburg 9-1. The Shorebirds are 19-6, including an 8-0 mark versus Fredericksburg.

High Single-A Aberdeen scored three times in the last of the ninth to beat Hickory 4-3 and improve to 17-7 with its eighth win in nine games. Zach Watson's single was the walk-off winner after Kyle Stowers' two-run single had tied it up.

Norfolk lost 11-2 at Durham as Wander Franco, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, hit a three-run homer against the Tides.

The four O's farm teams are now a collective 64-34 (.653). The combined records for Delmarva, Aberdeen and Bowie are 55-18 (.753).