Mountcastle's move pays quick dividends 

Though more static so far than in years past, Brandon Hyde’s lineup featured a significant change Tuesday: Ryan Mountcastle, the Orioles' everyday cleanup hitter early in the year, dropped to sixth. The shakeup was purposeful, with Hyde saying he hoped to help Mountcastle hit himself out of the difficult early-season slump in which the rookie entered the doubleheader against the Mariners.

“I’m just trying to take a little pressure off Ryan,” Hyde said Monday, before rain pushed the O’s regularly scheduled game to Tuesday. “I want Ryan to breathe through his at-bats a little bit. I just see him really pressing.”

Neither one game nor one at-bat can turn a season around. But the early returns on Hyde’s decision were good after Mountcastle paced the Orioles’ late-inning comeback before they dropped Game 1, 4-3, to Seattle in eight innings. With the O’s down to their final out in the seventh, Mountcastle doubled off Rafael Montero and scored on DJ Stewart’s game-tying single to force extras. Kyle Seager then provided the game-winning double off Tanner Scott in the eighth.

The loss was the Orioles’ sixth in seven games after they swept the Red Sox to open the year. But they hope it sparks something in Mountcastle, who’d opened the year 7-for-40 with 18 strikeouts entering his final at-bat Tuesday. Mountcastle also made some of Baltimore's hardest contact of the afternoon in the form of a 104.1-mph flyout off Justus Sheffield, who outpitched John Means over six innings. Mountcastle then went 2-for-3 with an RBI and stolen base in the O’s nightcap victory.

All three of the O’s outs in the eighth inning of Game 1 came on well-struck batted balls off reliever Kendall Graveman, with each leaving the bat with an exit velocity at least 97.1 mph. Mountcastle’s seventh-inning double was the hardest-hit ball of the day by either team at 110.3 mph.

“I thought he swung the bat good his last couple at-bats,” Hyde said. “In certain spots here in the last few days, we’re hitting some balls on the nose and getting unlucky.”

Means fell victim to Ty France's and Tom Murphy's solo homers in allowing three runs over five-plus innings, with Ramón Urías’ two-run homer providing support before the Orioles' comeback in the seventh. Means found his footing after a rocky start, retiring 10 of his last 11 hitters, but he allowed seven batted balls with 99-mph exit velocity or harder over the first two innings.

“I hate starting the game off like that,” Means said. “I didn’t execute the game plan early. I wasn’t locating well and wasn’t pitching like myself. I knew what I needed to do, I just wasn’t able to do it that first couple innings.”

From the trainer’s room
The prognosis is positive on Austin Hays, whose strained right hamstring recovered enough for the outfielder to target rehab-style games at the Orioles' alternate training site in Bowie, Md., later this week. Hyde said Hays would begin playing in those games -- the O's have scrimmages against the Nationals scheduled -- within the next few days, without being more specific.

“Hopefully that goes well and we’ll see him sometime shortly after that,” Hyde said.

Hays is eligible to come off the injured list Thursday. When he does, it’ll bolster Baltimore's outfield defense, but also further limit Mountcastle’s reps in left field. Mountcastle served as the designated hitter in all three games for which Hays was active, and all three since Stewart returned from the injured list.

Roster move
The Orioles selected right-hander Travis Lakins Sr. as Tuesday’s 27th man, then returned him to their alternate training site following the doubleheader. Lakins made his season debut in Game 1, striking out two over an inning of scoreless relief. The right-hander pitched to a 2.81 ERA in 22 appearances in 2020, mostly in middle relief.