BALTIMORE — Sometimes a change in the calendar can be all that’s needed. For as dreary as July and August were for Ryan Mountcastle, the start to September has been more optimistic.
That optimism took the form of Mountcastle gazing upward, following the soaring parabola of a ball headed over the left-field fence at Oriole Park before beginning the first of two home run trots Saturday night. Between July 1 and Aug. 30, Mountcastle hit five homers.
But in his last four games, the Orioles first baseman has gone deep three times, including his first-inning blast and his third-inning opposite-field shot. With each, there’s a growing sense that Mountcastle has turned a corner on his midsummer doldrums. The immediate benefit of those four RBIs on Saturday was powering Baltimore to a 8-1 win against the Oakland Athletics to keep pace in the American League wild-card race.
