Rutschman (4-for-4) rolling in hot start to second year

BALTIMORE -- Why are the Orioles now carrying three catchers on their 26-man roster? They feel it will allow them to get Adley Rutschman into the lineup more often as the designated hitter.

The reason why Baltimore wants to do that is obvious.

Rutschman has opened his sophomore MLB season by swinging the Orioles’ hottest bat. On Sunday afternoon, the 25-year-old swatted his second homer of the year as part of a 4-for-4 showing during a 5-3 loss to the Yankees in the series finale.

Rutschman became the second player in franchise history to record multiple four-hit performances within the team’s first nine games of a season, as he previously homered and went 5-for-5 on Opening Day in Boston. Baseball Hall of Famer George Sisler achieved the feat in 1922 for the then-St. Louis Browns.

Through nine games, Rutschman is 14-for-36 (.389) with six RBIs and a 1.032 OPS.

“I just try and go by my process the same every day, try not to look at results as much as I can,” Rutschman said. “I’m attacking every day the same, as far as my swing goes.”

Despite playing baseball’s most demanding position most of the time, Rutschman has yet to take a day off this season. He has started behind the plate seven times and at DH twice, including on Sunday.

James McCann (who opened the season on the injured list with a left oblique strain) started at catcher in his Orioles debut Sunday. When the veteran was reinstated prior to the game, Baltimore opted to send outfielder Kyle Stowers to Triple-A Norfolk and keep backstop Anthony Bemboom on its active roster.

Now, the O’s could more frequently start Rutschman at DH and McCann at catcher while having Bemboom available off the bench. It gives Baltimore more flexibility and ensures it likely wouldn’t need to sacrifice its DH if its starting backstop sustained an injury midgame.

It’ll also help keep Rutschman fresh, potentially making huge offensive displays even more common.

“To be able to just go out there and do that, and do the same thing that he did on Opening Day, it’s pretty incredible,” said starting pitcher Tyler Wells, who allowed four runs in six innings. “He’s a special talent.”

In his rookie season in 2022, Rutschman was much better as a left-handed hitter against righty pitchers (a .280/.386/.503 slash line) than he was batting right-handed vs. southpaws (.173/.287/.265). This year, he’s more equally punishing opposing hurlers.

Rutschman singled in each of his three at-bats against Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes, improving to 5-for-10 against left-handers in 2023, and 5-for-9 in his career against Cortes. The rest of Baltimore’s hitters went 1-for-16 against the All-Star hurler, with the only hit being Ryan Mountcastle’s one-out double in the sixth that ended Cortes’ day.

“I made adjustments in the offseason, and you never know until you get into the season,” said Rutschman, who boasts impressive slash lines against both lefties (.500/.583/.500) and righties (.346/.433/.577) thus far.

Rutschman can spray the ball around the field, as he showed by singling to center in the first and sixth and knocking one the opposite way to right in the fourth. But he also has a lot of pop, which he again showed in his first left-handed at-bat of the day in the eighth.

Facing New York right-hander Jimmy Cordero, Rutschman jumped on a 2-0, 97.8 mph sinker over the heart of the plate and jolted it a Statcast-projected 408 feet over the right-field scoreboard and onto the flag court. It had an exit velocity of 108.3 mph, the hardest hit of Rutschman’s 15 career homers.

“He’s a hitter first and the power’s secondary, but he’s got a ton of power also,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s got great barrel control. You’ve seen him get a ton of opposite-field hits already this year, but he’s got the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark also. He’s got really good strike-zone discipline. He understands when to be aggressive, and he battles with two strikes, takes close pitches and understands how to take an at-bat.

“Pretty fun to watch a young player in his first full year do what he’s doing.”

But it wasn’t the most fun day for Rutschman, as the Orioles dropped two of three games to the American League East-rival Yankees. Baltimore (4-5) has fallen in two of its first three series of the season, as it also dropped two of three in Boston.

“I’d rather have the win. That’s really what it comes down to,” Rutschman said. “We’ve got a lot of baseball left, and we’re going to show up tomorrow, compete, go about our process and do what we do.”