BALTIMORE — The Oakland Athletics pitched around Adley Rutschman, the Orioles’ No. 2 hitter, twice on Tuesday night.
Ryan Mountcastle, Baltimore’s No. 3 hitter, made them pay both times.
Mountcastle roped an RBI single in the third inning when Athletics starter Kyle Muller walked Rutschman on four pitches. In the seventh — two innings after Mountcastle brought the Orioles back into the game with a three-run blast — Oakland intentionally walked Rutschman with first base open, giving way for Mountcastle to launch a grand slam over the left-field wall.
Mountcastle’s two-homer, nine-RBI night propelled the Orioles (6-5) to a 12-8 comeback win over the visiting Athletics.
His nine RBIs tie Eddie Murray (1985) and Jim Gentile (1961) for the Orioles’ single-game record. The last MLB player with nine RBIs in a game was Atlanta Braves outfielder Adam Duvall in September 2020.
The multi-homer game is the seventh of Mountcastle’s four-year career. The 456-foot grand slam — the farthest long ball of his career — is Mountcastle’s second; the first also came against Oakland on Sept. 3, 2022.
The 12-run, 12-hit performance from the Orioles’ offense, which had combined to score just nine runs in its previous three games, bailed out starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez and reliever Austin Voth, who combined to allow five runs in the fifth inning.
Mountcastle’s first RBI was a sacrifice fly in the first inning that scored Austin Hays, who led off the game with a double. Hays, a right-handed hitter, led off Tuesday instead of left-handed hitting Cedric Mullins against Muller, a lefty. Hays entered the game hitting just .239 in 34 games as a leadoff hitter, but he went 4-for-5 with a double, a home run and two RBIs.
Over the weekend, Mountcastle and Hays dealt with tough luck as they lined into hard outs or had home runs robbed by Camden Yards’ new left field wall. But they both broke out in Monday’s win, blasting deep shots and debuting the Orioles’ new “homer hose” celebration. They went back to the well — er, hose — Tuesday.
The only other Orioles run to not include Hays or Mountcastle was an RBI double from designated hitter James McCann in the fourth. The hit was McCann’s first as an Oriole.
Rodriguez’s first start at Camden Yards — with a “Welcome to the Show” T-shirt as the fan giveaway — began the same way the first one of his big league career did last week in Texas. The club’s top pitching prospect walked Tony Kemp, who later scored on a single from cleanup hitter Brent Rooker.
Through the fourth inning, though, the 6-foot-5 right-hander was sharp and pounded the strike zone, getting swings and misses on upper-90 mph fastballs, sharp sliders and string-pulling changeups. Rodriguez ended his night with 15 whiffs in 4 1/3 innings — the most from an Orioles starter this season, with his 11 swings and misses last week ranking second.
The main blemishes before the fifth inning were two-strike singles he allowed. While he displayed his putaway ability, he still struggled when he got batters to two strikes. All six of the hits he allowed — including Rooker’s single and Jace Peterson’s RBI single in the third — came with two strikes.
Those challenges, though, were nothing compared to how Rodriguez unraveled in the fifth inning. As his pitch count rose, the 23-year-old lost his command, walking three of the first four batters he faced in the fifth. He exited with one out and bases loaded in the fifth, and Voth surrendered hits to four of the first five batters he faced, including a three-run home run to Shea Langeliers.
Rodriguez’s Oriole Park debut ended with him allowing six hits, five runs and four walks in 4 1/3 innings.
Voth bounced back to retire the side in the sixth, and relievers Bryan Baker, Danny Coulombe and Logan Gillaspie followed to close out the win. Baker and Coulombe tossed scoreless frames; Gillaspie allowed one run in the ninth before striking out the final batter for the win.
Around the horn
— Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said starting pitcher Kyle Bradish (bruised right foot) will begin his minor league rehabilitation assignment Friday in Bowie. The goal is for Bradish, who can return from the 15-day injured list on April 19, to throw four or five innings with the Double-A affiliate.
— Mullins, who was in the No. 9 hole Tuesday, went 0 for 3. Since going 5 for 13 in the opening series, Mullins is 2 for 30.
— Shortstop Jorge Mateo stole third base in the third inning for his sixth swipe of the season, which is tied for most in the majors. The Orioles’ 16 steals through their first 10 games of the year entering Tuesday were most for the club since moving to Baltimore in 1954.
