Since we last chatted, Birdland, the baseball? It’s been good. The O’s took two of three from the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, three of four from the Blue Jays in Toronto, and thoroughly buried the curse of the City Connect uniforms in beating the Mets’ doors in last night.
Let’s see who was Up and who was Down during the 6-2 stretch that has the Birds at a season-high 26 games over .500 and continuing to boast the AL’s best record.
Three Up
Ryan Mountcastle
Ryan Mountcastle! When he hit a home run in Philly and started smacking base hits the other way, I mused that we needed to remember how a hot Mounty can carry a team for a few weeks. We’ve seen it happen before, but since his vertigo issues and IL stint, we had been getting a version of Mountcastle that inspired little confidence. Well, he turned all that on its head, facing his favorite team to torment, the Jays. It’s borderline criminal, the pleasure we O’s fans derive, from watching Ryan destroy the Toronto Blue Jays.
He was 11-for-13 with three walks and six RBI in the series, after going 2-for-7 with a homer against NYY. I heard the Mets radio guys say last night that Elias Sports Bureau looked into Mounty’s Toronto numbers and found that it was the best four-game series by a Baltimore Oriole EVER (don’t quote me on that…I swear they said it, but I can’t find any tweets to back it up at the moment).
With four consecutive multi-hit games, Ryan Mountcastle is swinging a red-hot bat for the first place @Orioles.#MLBCentral | @markdero7 pic.twitter.com/cPD8xheqDC
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 4, 2023
In 30 PA over the last seven games, Mounty posted a .560/.567/.840 line, good for a 276 wRC+. He also walked 10% of the time (!!!), dwarfing his career number of 6.8%.
Ryan Mountcastle now has 38 RBI and an OPS upward of .980 in 46 career games against the Blue Jays
— Joe Papparotto (@JoePappa) July 31, 2023
If Ryan can keep seeing the ball this well, he’s going to help carry this O’s team for more than a couple weeks. Welcome back, Mounty!
Gunnar Henderson
In 36 PA over the last eight, Gunnar Henderson posted a very respectable .286/.306/.571 line with four doubles, two homers, six driven in, and seven runs scored (137 wRC+). Gunnar has been hitting lefties and righties alike, forcing his way into the lineup every night. He is now hot on the heels of Tampa’s Luke Raley for the AL lead in fWAR (2.7 vs. 2.6) among rookies, tied with Texas’ Josh Jung. Over at baseball-reference, Gunnar is at 3.4 WAR, Raley at 2.6, and Jung at 2.2. If you prefer Baseball Prospectus: Gunnar 1.8, Jung 1.4, Raley 1.2.
The long and short of it: Henderson has firmly entrenched himself in the AL Rookie of the Year conversation, quite the accomplishment after his slow start to 2023.
He mashes, he fields smooth as silk at several positions, he runs the bases like his mane of blond locks is on fire…the guy is flat out awesome.
Grayson Rodriguez
Oh hey, Grayson Rodriguez! The one we’ve been waiting for! Since returning to the rotation on July 17, Grayson has gone at least five innings in every start, giving up just five earned runs over his last three outings spanning 17 IP, including recording the first out in the seventh inning in his career last Friday against the Yankees (6.1 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 4 K, 2 BB). Though he was the hard-luck loser on Wednesday in Toronto, he pitched fine. He went 5.2 without allowing a single run before giving way to Shintaro Fujinami, who proceeded to erupt by walking/HBP’ing a few Jays across the plate, runs which were charged to Grayson. If any damn Birds reliever could manage to strand runners, Rodriguez would have had a scoreless start.
In 12.0 IP last week, Grayson put up 0.4 fWAR, thanks to a 2.60 FIP and 3.69 xFIP. Things are looking up for the youngster.
Honorable Mentions: James McCann, Jack Flaherty, Danny Coulombe, Jordan Westburg, Adley Rutschman, Anthony Santander, Adam Frazier
Three Down
Austin Hays
A caveat: Austin Hays‘ INCREDIBLE game-saving catch on Monday night in Toronto means that he wasn’t totally down this week. I mean, this was something else:
Austin Hays just made the play of the night, robbing Whit Merrifield of a hit with two on in the 9th. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/YcEC4z1DlD
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) August 1, 2023
Throw in that he put together a four-hit game with two RBI in Thursday’s finale at Rogers Centre, then had another hit last night, and I kinda feel bad putting him here.
However, the numbers for the week were still thus: .200/.294/.233 in 34 PA, good for a 44 wRC+, worst among O’s regulars. Hays was very bad in July, there’s no sugarcoating it. But so far in August, he’s been better (.353/.421/.412).
His season numbers are still very good, at .287/.329/.443 (111 wRC+), and the hope is that he’s getting it turned around, so let’s not dwell on it too much.
Shintaro Fujinami
We’ve touched on Fuji’s outing against Toronto, but it bears going into more detail. He entered the game with two on and two outs, and the score 1-1. He walked George Springer, who had like one hit in his previous 40 at-bats, to load the bases. He then plunked Matt Chapman to force in a run. He then plunked Danny Jansen to force in ANOTHER run. He then got what should have been an inning-ending ground ball, only to watch Jorge Mateo flub it and allow yet another Blue Jay to cross the plate.
This was after he went walk, double play on Friday, then 2B, K, K, PO, BB, K, K, FO on Sunday, both against the Yankees.
The strikeouts are great. The control is still something the O’s pitching lab has to help Fuji get a handle on before we can be comfortable seeing him come out of the bullpen in a close game.
Tyler Wells
Yeah, when you spend the first half of the season as arguably the horse of the rotation for the best team in the American League, then find yourself demoted to AA Bowie in late July, it’s safe to say you’re down. That’s the situation in which Tyler Wells finds himself, after recording just eight outs on 63 pitches, while giving up three earned on two home runs and three walks against New York last Saturday.
Wells’ July stats: 5 starts, 21 IP, 21 H, 15 ER, 6 HR, 16 K, 13 BB, 6.43 ERA, 7.74 FIP, 6.91 xFIP
Hopefully Wells can rest his arm as needed and come back and help this team in some fashion down the stretch, whether that be as a sixth starter, an opener, a long reliever, a short reliever…whatever. We’ve seen him succeed in several different roles now. This team could use an effective pitcher in just about any of them.
Here’s to another week with way more UP than DOWN, Birdland!
