Mancini hits high note with 2 HRs, 5 RBIs

BALTIMORE -- Even if Trey Mancini wasn’t pleased with the rust that accompanied his return to the field in April, to those who know him best, it was certainly understandable. It would take at least some time, they cautioned, for Mancini to regain his old form after missing the entire 2020 season beating colon cancer, given the physical demands of that experience.

Deep down, Mancini knew it too, even if he outwardly resisted that reality -- smashing helmets, splintering bats over his knee -- generally blustering as he dragged a batting average below the Mendoza Line into mid-April, while his recovery story garnered widespread attention and acclaim.

Flash forward about a month to Wednesday evening, and the buzz around Mancini’s comeback narrative has cooled significantly, despite recent interviews with ESPN and Jim Rome. Quite suddenly, too, his struggles seem like something of the distant past.

Connecting for two homers and a three-run double in the Orioles’ 9-7 loss to the Rays at Oriole Park, Mancini continued what’s been a resurgent stretch with his best all-around game of the season.

Mancini had four hits and matched a career high with five RBIs to swing his way into sole possession of the American League lead in support of John Means, who exited with a three-run lead in the seventh before Tampa Bay rallied against Baltimore’s ‘pen.

The result was the Orioles’ ninth loss in the 11 games since Means’ May 5 no-hitter, this one in a game they led by five runs after two innings. That cushion was provided almost entirely by Mancini, who is now hitting .317/.385/.587 with four homers and 21 RBIs in 20 games this month. All told, Mancini is batting .273 with nine homers, 38 RBIs and an .840 OPS in his first season back since defeating cancer. His 38 RBIs lead the Majors.

“If you told me that a year ago, I’d be pretty pleased to hear that,” Mancini said. “I do reflect a lot on last year -- as much as I’ve tried to move on, it’s hard not to say, 'A year ago today, I was going in for this cycle of treatments. I think I’d be around three or four [cycles] right now.' I’m definitely much happier to be here in 2021 playing baseball.”

That gratitude was there from the minute Mancini stepped back into the batting cage last November, from the second he took the field this spring, to his emotional regular-season return and beyond. It’s heightened now not because he’s playing, but because he’s playing well. And for an Orioles team that rallied around its top slugger last year and has struggled to score consistently this season, the gratitude is mutual.

“Those first few weeks were kind of a fluke,” said Means. “He just needed to get his feet under him. After that, everybody was just waiting for him to go off.”

The difference lately, in Mancini’s estimation, is mostly mental. Mancini readily admits he was pressing early, weighed down by self-imposed pressure to prove to so many watching that he could be the player he used to be immediately. His perspective began to shift in late April, when manager Brandon Hyde called him into his office and pleaded with his slugger to relax.

A short time later, hitting coach Don Long recommended “The Inner Game of Tennis,” a classic 1974 sports psychology book by Timothy Gallway, which generations of athletes have turned to for help improving focus and concentration. An avid tennis player in his youth, Mancini devoured it. His on-field production improved as if on cue.

“More than anything in baseball, you really need to master the mental side, because it can be a roller coaster if not,” Mancini said. “The thesis of the book is: you have two selves. Self one: your consciousness. Self two: your unconsciousness. A lot of the times, its about calming down Self one when you’re in the game. Not thinking too much, not talking to yourself badly. Focusing on breathing.

“I think whenever I stopped trying to compare myself to my 2019 self is when I started feeling how I did that year.”

The comparisons, though, are inevitable, bound to come from anyone with a vested interest in the Orioles or the trajectory of their rebuild. This is true not only of Mancini, but also of Means, for whom 2019 also presents the most reflective data sheet to measure his ‘21 success against. Two years after their breakout seasons, Mancini beat cancer and re-emerged as the AL’s (at the moment, MLB's) top run producer. Means’ 1.70 ERA leads all qualified AL starters.

It was with those developments in mind that O’s GM Mike Elias publicly characterized both as long-term pieces Wednesday afternoon, mentioning Means by name and at least alluding to Mancini when saying he’s begun players they "project to be playoff-caliber starters for the Orioles'” in the future.

For Elias, it was a public shift after years of characterizing no one as untouchable, unloading nearly a dozen veterans in trades for prospects and entertaining proposals for Mancini on multiple occasions. He figures to field calls from contending teams across the league this summer, about Means and Mancini both.

What Elias said on Wednesday won’t dictate what he does come July or December, or beyond, but what Means and Mancini do on the field very well could.

“We want to keep those guys going, and we want to build around them and add to them,” Elias said. “This is a big reason why we availed all these players of playing time in 2019, rather than bring people in that might block some of our interesting players. … These are some of the benefits of the process that we're undergoing: that we have players on our watch that have blossomed and improved.”