Every pitcher’s goal, every time they toe the rubber, is to have a 1-2-3 inning. Well, ok, sometimes a reliever will come in and not need to get three outs, but let’s not get too bogged down here already. We all know that a three-up, three-down inning is music to our ears when the bad guys are at bat.
So that’s the name of the new feature here at ESR: Three Up, Three Down. I don’t claim that this is an original feature by any means, but it popped into my head when I was walking my kid from school today, and I know we haven’t done it around here before at least. Every week, I’ll talk about three Birds who’ve been good, and three who’ve been bad.
Simple enough, right?
Let’s get to it.
Three Up
Ryan Mountcastle
We have to start with Ryan Mountcastle, don’t we? Over his last eight games, Mounty is hitting .281/.286/.750 with four home runs and 15 RBI, capped off, of course, by his explosion Tuesday night in the comeback win over Oakland. Mountcastle joined Eddie Murray in 1985 and Jim Gentile in 1961 as the only Orioles to ever drive in nine runs in a single game. He did it in style too, with a dramatic 456-foot grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Mounty has traditionally been a bit of a slow starter, so doing this already bodes very, very well for a great season from the mustachioed Emo lover.
Ryan Mountcastle March/April stats through his career:
2021: .198/.229/.286 with 1HR, 4BB, 30 SO, and 7 RBIs in 25 games
2022: .247/.275/.338 with 2HR, 2BB, 21 SO, and 8 RBIs in 19 games
2023: .289/.320/.711 with 5HR, 3BB, 15 SO, and 18 RBIs in 11 games (so far)
— Trev-the-beast (@TrevTheBeast10) April 12, 2023
Adley Rutschman
We started with Mountcastle because he’s fresh in everyone’s mind, but he hasn’t even been the best Oriole hitter lately. That honor would go to the guy who was intentionally walked with first base open just prior to the aforementioned Grand Slam, Adley Rutschman. Over his last eight, Adley is hitting a cool .393/.514/.643, good for a 223 wRC+, seventh best in the majors in that time. He’s walking (20%) more than he’s striking out (17%), and leads MLB catchers with a 214 wRC+ overall here in 2023. His .452 BABIP is due for some regression, but Adley looks every bit the superstar we had hoped he’d be coming into his sophomore campaign.
The way players used to find pink slips hanging in their lockers when they were cut, Adley should walk in and find a contract hanging there with the dollars and years blank. Fill it in, man.
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) April 12, 2023
Adley is mashing from both sides of the plate as well. Last year, he hit one home run against left-handed pitching in 98 AB, and only managed a batting average of .173. So far this season, he has a home run as a righty in 15 AB, with an average of .467.
He’s a bAD(ley) Man.
Danny Coulombe
There were several members of the bullpen deserving here, but this week we’re going with the new guy, Danny Coulombe. In 3.2 IP over four games, Coulombe had a 14.73 K/9, didn’t walk a batter, and had a 0.22 WPA (Win Probability Added). He’s yet to allow a run in 4.2 IP this season, and the 33-year-old, acquired from Minnesota for our old friend Cash Considerations on March 27, looks like a stroke of genius from Mike Elias & Co.
Honorable Mentions
Austin Hays, Felix Bautista, Bryan Baker, Cionel Perez
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Three Down
Cedric Mullins
Ced, yikes. In 34 plate appearances, Mullins managed just two hits – a single and a double – on his way to a -31 wRC+. He was removed from the leadoff spot for Austin Hays on Tuesday, and is getting a day off on Wednesday. Hopefully Ced starts finding some better luck – his .087 BABIP during that stretch says that he’s due for exactly that. His 14.3% line drive rate is below his career mark of 17.8, and his fly ball rate is up over his career average (54.3 vs. 41.5). What really stands out though is that infield fly percentage (read: shallow pop-ups) of 21.1. That’s 7% higher than his career mark, and will need to come way down if that BABIP number is going to improve considerably.
Something to watch.
Gunnar Henderson
We had hoped Gunnar Henderson was set to break out after his home run Wednesday in Texas, then 2-for-5 day Friday against New York. However, he doesn’t have a hit since, going 0 for his last 10 with four strikeouts. That K% is about the standard so far, as he’s at 46.2% over his last six games and 40% for the year. Because he still walks so much (11.5% for the week, 22.5% this season), his wRC+ numbers aren’t abysmal either over the last week (72) or this season (79). His HardHit% of 33.3 is way down from last year’s 53.7, and it’s clear that the league has made some adjustments to the former #1 overall prospect.
Now it’s Gunnar’s turn to adjust back. We’re all quite confident he will, but this week, the youngster finds himself down.
Austin Voth
When Brandon Hyde came out to get Grayson Rodriguez in the fifth inning last night, we were all surprised he had let the rookie go so long, as he’d just walked the bases loaded. But the real head-scratcher was who Hyde was bringing in: Austin Voth. Voth had already allowed a home run all three times he’d been handed the ball in 2023, and now Skip was bringing him in to put out THIS fire? Uh…ok.
Birdland winced, and things went…well, exactly as we’d expected. Single through the left side, nubber to first, and a 3-2 lead was quickly a 4-3 deficit after just two batters of Voth. He was just getting started though.
After three batters, a 3-2 lead was a 7-3 deficit, thanks to a two-out three-run home run by Shea Langeliers. Did I mention it was on a 1-2 pitch? It was on a 1-2 pitch.
Voth, a revelation in 2022 after Elias picked him up following Voth’s release by the Nationals, has quickly turned back into a pumpkin, sporting a 10.50 ERA in six innings. That’s a far cry from the 3.04 ERA he put up here last year as a surprise reliable starter (17 starts/22 appearances).
Maybe some of these fly balls start staying in the yard (a 33.3% HR/FB rate can’t continue, can it?), but Voth could quickly find himself on the chopping block. This organization is too deep these days to let regressed reclamation projects hang on for long.
Dishonorable Mentions
Cole Irvin (exempt due to Sanitation Station celebration contributions), Anthony Santander
