The raw power, slumps and shuttle conspired to bracket Coby Mayo into a certain segment of the 2025 lineup.

Mayo played in 85 games and didn’t bat higher than fifth, getting four starts and 18 plate appearances. He also hit sixth (11 times), seventh (33), eighth (13) and ninth (16).

Nothing about 2026 suggested that Mayo would occupy every spot in the order, but he’s done it. He batted second Thursday night to go nine-for-nine this season.

Mayo hit second again on Friday. He led off for the only time in his career on Aug. 1, a pretty strong indication that his usage would veer from the norm. He batted ninth on April 22.

Eighth is the most common landing spot for Mayo with 29 starts. He’s hit seventh in 23, fifth in 16, sixth in 15 and cleanup in 10.

Did he anticipate that he’d move around this much?

Of course not.

“No,” he said without hesitation.

“Obviously, last year and the year before I was pretty much always hitting towards the bottom, and obviously, rightfully so,” he said. “It’s the big leagues. You’ve got your dudes in the top of the order. So I never really expected that, but obviously this year, versus lefties it’s been three, four, five a lot. Led off once, and second the last few days.

“Didn’t expect it, but now that the results have been there versus lefties, it definitely makes sense. And it’s been fun hitting at the top of the order. You feel like you’re hitting every other inning, so it’s been fun.”

Manager Craig Albernaz isn’t going to bury or bench Mayo with a southpaw on the mound. He was slashing .323/.381/.740 with 15 of his 19 home runs against them before last night, and he was riding a career-high nine-game hitting streak – going 10-for-32 with two homers and eight RBIs during that stretch. He drew a walk as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.

The realization that he batted from top to bottom and all points in between came to Mayo Thursday after the lineup was sent out.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think I’ve hit second this year.’ And then in my head I was like, ‘I think I’ve hit everywhere else but second.’ So at that point it kind of hit me that I’ve hit everywhere,” Mayo said.

“Yeah, pretty cool.”

*Going into Friday night’s game, Blaze Alexander ranked first among players with the most improvement in average in a minimum 250 plate appearances in 2025 and 2026.

Alexander batted .230 last year with the Diamondbacks and brought a .309 average into Friday, when he collected three more hits. The .079 increase put him ahead of the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker (.074) and the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz (.070).

According to STATS, Alexander’s .309 average stood as the 10th highest by an Oriole in his first season with the club in a minimum 250 plate appearances.

The six weeks missed with a non-displaced fracture in his left hand hasn’t slowed Alexander’s roll or changed his role. He was 9-for-26 in seven games before last night and 7-for-13 in the last three to bump his average to .316 with a .368 on-base percentage and .797 OPS.

*Mickey Gasper’s home run in the first inning Friday night was only the second allowed by Shane Baz in his last 10 starts at Camden Yards and his fifth this season.

The four homers in 73 innings prior to his last outing gave him a 0.49 rate per nine innings at home that ranked second all-time among Orioles in a minimum 70 innings. Scott Erickson, a renowned ground ball pitcher, is first at 0.41 in 1997.

Bud Norris checks in third at 0.56 in 2014, followed by Erik Bedard at 0.57 in 2005 and Ben McDonald at 0.61 in 1993.

Baz had the third-lowest overall home runs per nine innings rate in the majors among qualified pitchers.

*The Orioles’ five-game losing streak matches their season high.

The offense is largely to blame with back-to-back shutouts. The scoreless streak is 18 innings.

The last time that the Orioles went 19 or more innings without scoring was July 9-12, 2024 (25).

*An Adley Rutschman leftover:

Rutschman is the second catcher in the modern era (since 1900) to hit multiple homers in his first game against his former team.

Rod Barajas homered twice for the Blue Jays on May 17, 2008 against the Phillies.

Rutschman homered twice against the Red Sox on April 24, making him the only player in major league history with a multiple-homer game on both sides of the same matchup in the same season.

The more you know …