More often than not, the Orioles’ youth is a crutch used to explain away loss after loss.
But on Tuesday at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, their rookies were almost exclusively the reason they ended August with a comprehensive 4-2 win over the Blue Jays, snapping a four-game losing streak in the process.
As his opposite number Hyun Jin Ryu was carrying a no-hit bid into the sixth inning against the Orioles, rookie left-hander Keegan Akin was keeping things close. He stranded two in the second before a leadoff home run in the third by Danny Jansen but finished five innings having allowed just two hits while walking three and striking out five.
His efforts to keep Baltimore within striking distance gave some incentive to the Orioles bats to wake-up, and they did so with two outs in the sixth. Mountcastle, who is charging into the season’s final month and making a legitimate case for American League Rookie of the Year consideration, doubled and came around to score on a single by Austin Hays. Hays and Anthony Santander, who walked, scored on a double by rookie Ramón Urías — who has been just as successful as Mountcastle, albeit in a limited role.
The next inning, rookie Jorge Mateo walked, took second when his speed forced an errant pickoff throw, and scored on a single by rookie Jahmai Jones.
That run restored their two-run lead after Jorge López allowed a home run to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the sixth inning in relief of Akin, and when Guerrero came up again in the seventh with two on and two out, Hyde summoned rookie reliever Tyler Wells.
Even on a day when he struck out three times, rookie left fielder Ryan McKenna helped Wells in the eighth by playing a line drive off the wall by Teoscar Hernández quickly and holding him to a single. That kept the force intact at second base, allowing the Orioles to turn a tricky ground ball up the middle one batter later into a second out of the inning. Without it, Toronto may have mounted a rally. Instead, Wells got out of the inning cleanly.
Before the game, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde called for the team to be more competitive in September. His final-month wish-list included winning as many games as they can, and for the likes of Cedric Mullins, Mountcastle, Hays, and Santander to all finish strong.
But seeing rookies produce at the level they did Tuesday can be a boost to a team whose present, at 41-90, is being presented as a means to get to a brighter future in which all these rookies may soon be part of a winner.
Perspective for Mancini
Hyde gave Trey Mancini a day off Tuesday in Toronto amid what’s been a difficult few months for the team’s longest-tenured player. Mancini has a .694 OPS and four home runs since the All-Star break, but Hyde came to his defense and said just having Mancini back after he missed all of 2020 for treatment after being diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer was enough.
“I think whatever Trey Mancini has given us this year, it’s an absolute bonus, from what he went through last year,” Hyde said. “I don’t think anybody had any understanding of what his year was going to be, so for him to be in the lineup 90-plus percent of the time is a credit to him and shows a lot about his character and how much he wants to be out there. But going through chemo for six months and then having — he hasn’t had a good couple months for him, and he’s putting so much pressure on himself right now, and he’s taking it extremely hard. And we have to constantly remind him what his world looked like a year ago. I’m giving him the day off today because he’s just so hard on himself and he feels like he needs to produce. I’m just happy to see him on a daily basis.”
