Akin, Mountcastle power O's past Cleveland

With a club like the rebuilding Orioles, the future is always promised, but not always plain to see. While many of their top prospects shined down on the farm, the O’s clamored for their younger players at the big league level to show improvement early in 2021, after so many debuted with aplomb down the stretch last season. Those flashes, though, were scarce during the first two months of this trying, transitional season in Baltimore. But perhaps that is beginning to change.

Continuing what’s been an early theme of June, several of the Orioles' youngsters were behind the club’s come-from-behind, 3-1 win over the Indians on Friday night at Oriole Park, where Keegan Akin delivered his finest start of the season and Ryan Mountcastle put his slow start further in the rear-view mirror. Connecting off Bryan Shaw in the seventh, Mountcastle’s go-ahead, two-run homer stood after a replay review to send the O’s home winners on a night they were held to one hit over the first six innings.

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“I couldn’t tell when I hit it, if [the ball] hit off [Cleveland left fielder Eddie Rosario’s] glove and came back or hit off a fan,” Mountcastle said. “I was a little nervous, but it stood and I was pretty pumped about it.”

As important was the pitching, with Akin blanking the Indians over five innings of three-hit ball, and new closer Paul Fry securing the final three outs for his first save in his new role. The result was Baltimore’s third straight win, and snapshots of the optimism that bubbled up at times in 2020, when Mountcastle and Akin shined in small samples, Tanner Scott (three strikeouts in a scoreless eighth Friday) and Fry took steps forward and progress appeared to be happening writ large, in real time.

But progress is not always linear, and Orioles brass has cautioned time and time again about the roller-coaster ride that auditioning younger players can be. Take for example, Akin. Dominant at times, but inconsistent down the stretch last season, Akin couldn't lock in a rotation job this spring, sliced his hand with a kitchen knife in April and wasn’t back in the Majors until May. By that point, Dean Kremer followed up his exciting four-start sample in 2020 (1.69 ERA in first three MLB starts) with an 0-5, 6.87 ERA start to '21.

Meanwhile, fellow rookies Bruce Zimmermann (4.96 ERA) and Zac Lowther (seven earned runs in one start) also struggled, and Scott regressed (18 percent walk rate, compared to 11.6 percent in 2020) as part of the bullpen’s collective nosedive. Akin’s start Friday was the 21st -- in 57 games, 36.8 percent of the club’s total starts -- bestowed to an Orioles rookie this season, and the first of at least five shutout innings. He’s now held opponents to eight runs in 20 innings (3.60 ERA) in '21, after two starts and four relief appearances.

“I’m happy where I’m at,” Akin said. “Spring Training was awful in my eyes and everybody else’s eyes as well. It was a little extra motivation when I got sent down, to go down and work my butt off, try to get here with the ultimate goal of being in the rotation. Here I am.”

Then there is Mountcastle, the top Orioles offensive prospect to debut since Trey Mancini a half-decade ago when he reached the big leagues in August 2020. Mountcastle hit .333 with five homers and an .878 OPS down the stretch last season, positioning himself as an American League Rookie of the Year Award favorite heading into '21.

He will require a massive summer to play his way back into that conversation, after hitting .221 with three homers, a .577 OPS and a 50-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first 42 games. But since? Signs of life: Mountcastle is hitting .314 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBIs in his last 10 games, and homered in three of his last four.

“It’s early still and I’m trying to get some confidence up there, and then I’m going to try to do my thing,” Mountcastle said. “Right now, I’m feeling pretty good and I am going to try to keep it rolling.”

Said Akin, who was Mountcastle’s teammate when he won International League MVP honors at Triple-A Norfolk in 2019: “It’s really good to see him get that swagger back in the box.”