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SAN FRANCISCO – Ryan Mountcastle has a tendency, and at times it seems more like a devotion, to keeping it simple.
What he’s trying to do at the plate and with his season, and how he responds to questions about them. The importance of the last five weeks as he approaches his last chance at an arbitration raise – and maybe his last at-bats with the Orioles.
“I think it doesn’t really matter what point in the season it is,” he said. “Every game is important and just going out there and showing what I can do, especially this last month, month and a half.”
That’s fair.
Most of Mountcastle’s starts will come as the designated hitter, with the Orioles wanting to get an extended look at Coby Mayo at first base. That’s the position where Mountcastle earned two Gold Glove nominations.
“Just get a bunch of at-bats,” he said about his DH status, “and try to make the most of it.”
Quite simple and right on point.
If you want to get Mountcastle worked up, start a rumor that the left field wall is moving back to the Hilton. But don’t be disappointed if his head shake is accompanied by a boyish grin.
Mountcastle’s future in Baltimore is cloudy with Mayo and Samuel Basallo ticketed to receive plenty of starts at first. He’s making $6.787 million and has played in 71 games due to a Grade 2 hamstring strain on May 30 that kept him out until Aug. 8. Injuries keep barreling his body. He’s more apt to run down a foul ball against the screen than catch a break.
The Orioles are watching what he’s doing again when healthy, including the pair of RBI doubles and two-run single Friday night at Oracle Park and a two-run homer and double yesterday. He’s 23-for-78 (.295) in 20 games this month after batting .298/.320/.394 in 23 games in May.
“A little calmer, I think, at the plate,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “When Mounty’s good, he’s just taking what the game’s giving him. When he’s bad, he’s trying to force pull-side home runs.
“Sounds crazy to think that a major leaguer is trying to manufacture a pull-side homer. We know that good approaches are generally the middle part of the field. But there’s a pressure. The kid feels pressure to hit more homers, and he hasn’t hit as many as he would like, and sometimes that pressure causes him to have a bad approach. When he’s able to not worry about the pressure and kind of stay within himself, then we get nights like (Friday).”
Mayo and Basallo could fill the DH spot on many nights, which also might squeeze Mountcastle, but Mansolino doesn’t think that’s where the pressure originates.
“I think it’s not so much about those players, but just more his own career,” Mansolino said. “He understands what his profile in the game is, and being a first baseman and hitting homers is kind of part of that job. There’s not a lot of first basemen that aren’t slugging the baseball in a lot of ways. I don’t think it has anything to do with the other guys, but just more for himself and whatever his path and trajectory are going to be in the game going forward.”
Mansolino trusts that Mountcastle will be every bit as good as he’s capable, that the ceiling didn’t cave in on him.
“Yeah, no doubt,” he said. “I’m a huge Ryan Mountcastle fan, so I think the world of the kid and I think it’s in there. I think it’s just him kind of getting out of his own way in some ways and not trying to force things and just kind of taking what the game gives him. When you see him in the first inning (Friday) shoot a ball down the right field line off Robbie Ray and just take the RBI and take the single and take what he gives you, I think that’s the good version of Mounty. He’s got a unique skill set with his bat in order to do those things that a lot of guys don’t.
“For Mounty, he kind of controls is own destiny in a lot of ways. He takes care of business, he is himself, he doesn’t try to do too much, he will have a job whether it’s with us or somebody else and he will become a really great player in this league.”
* Mansolino removed Dylan Beavers and Gunnar Henderson from Friday’s 15-8 loss by pinch-hitting for them in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Daniel Johnson replaced Beavers and Luis Vázquez batted for Henderson.
The media has a responsibility to check afterward on a possible injury, though it seemed more likely to be related to the score. And that’s especially true with Henderson, who rarely comes off the field. But Beavers left after making an extremely off-target throw to the plate on Rafael Devers’ RBI single in the seventh.
“We wanted ‘The Jet,’ DJ, he's a hometown kid, so we're looking for a way to get him to play right here,” Mansolino said. “So eight-run game right there, easy spot to throw him in, and then obviously with Gunn in an eight-run game and plays every day I'm gonna pull out right there. That's an easy one.”
Johnson started in left field yesterday, batted ninth and contributed a single, double and walk. Vázquez pinch-ran for Henderson in the eighth. Just more game-related stuff, this time in a lopsided win.
* Also in Friday's game, Dominic Smith homered into McCovey Cove in the fourth inning to become the 107th Giants player with a splash hit since the ballpark opened in 2000. Sixty-six visitors have done it, including Cody Asche, the Orioles’ hitting coach, who can recite every detail.
Asche finished his major league career with 32 homers in 390 games spread over parts of five seasons. He lined a full-count changeup from Ryan Vogelsong over the crowd in the Arcade Seats in the sixth inning of a July 11, 2015 game after Ryan Howard homered and Carlos Ruiz walked. Asche made contact, lowered his head and began his home run trot.
“Honestly, I think at the time I was not playing good at all,” he said, “so every homer was just probably like a little boost of confidence that I knew I was gonna like get to play again the next day.
“Growing up, I thought you have to be like Barry Bonds to hit it in the ocean. I think it was last year or two years ago I finally went over and walked back there to see how close it was. I never really knew. It’s not all that far over the wall. Pull side for a lefty, it’s not that crazy to think about.”
Asche was the 37th visiting player to reach McCovey Cove.
“At the time, I knew it went into the water, I just didn’t know that was that large of a deal,” he said. “I think it’s something fun now to look back on and have like a very small piece of baseball history attached to my name.”
Smith’s ball was measured at 387 feet. It takes more thump to clear the flag court at Camden Yards.
“I always wanted to have a plaque on Eutaw probably more than I wanted a splash hit because the plaque’s there,” Asche said. “Everybody gets to come back and see that. But we only played at Camden I think maybe one time when I was with the Phillies because no interleague schedules. But yeah, it’s cool. We come here every other year and I get to show the boys on video, let them know I used to also play on the professional circuit. Sometimes I did good.”
Asche had to supply all the power on a changeup, as I pointed out to him.
“I didn’t have much of it,” he quipped, “so it must have been a lot of wind that day.”
A male fan in a kayak paddled to the ball and scooped up his souvenir. You can watch it on YouTube.
“It’s probably somewhere out in the abyss,” Asche said. “Probably in some card shop in the middle of nowhere that’s probably selling for like 50 cents or something.”
