KANSAS CITY -- Rookie Cedric Mullins showed no signs of rust in his return to the lineup Friday night. In fact, the 23-year-old center fielder, who missed three games with a sore left hip, continues to be a beacon of hope in a season where the Orioles are scratching to find positives.
Mullins showcased his range in center field on several plays and hit his first career homer in the leadoff spot, scoring both of the Orioles' runs in the series-opening 9-2 loss to the Royals.
"You can tell his legs were feeling good. Let's see how they feel tomorrow. As much as he ran around tonight," manager Buck Showalter said of Mullins, who sat Sunday and missed back-to-back games prior to Thursday's off day. "That game would have been out of hand if he hadn't of made some of the plays he made tonight. He was a real bright spot."

Baltimore, riding high off its first home series sweep (against Toronto) couldn't muster much of anything off Royals starter Brad Keller. Keller held the O's to just two hits -- one of which was Mullins' blast -- over the first five innings. Mullins doubled and scored on Adam Jones' sixth-inning single that made it 3-2, but that was as close as the Orioles would get.
"You can tell when he goes up there he's got a plan, he doesn't get out of it," Showalter said of Mullins, who is batting .317/.386/.556 with 12 runs and nine extra-base hits through his first 18 games. "Doesn't seem to let a whole lot bother him. There's a certain calmness to his demeanor. It's almost an unassuming speed, too. If anybody wants to know why he has so many triples, on the home run he was rounding second by the time they called it [a homer]."
Mullins, who said he's adjusting to the depth perception of big league center field, is excited about what's transpired personally the past three weeks. But he acknowledged it's tough to get overly excited when the team is struggling.
"It's been a long season," said Mullins, who had his contract selected from Triple-A on Aug. 10. "To come in and have the immediate success I'm having it's just big, but I always play for the win."
Those have been hard to come by this year for the Orioles.

O's starter Andrew Cashner labored, allowing nine hits and three walks, and was unable to command any of his pitches for most of the night. The righty allowed four runs, including a pair of solo homers, to Hunter Dozier and Cam Gallagher, the latter of which chased him one out into the sixth.
"To me, I think I made more mistakes than that," Cashner said of Gallagher's homer that ended his night. "I hate giving up home runs, but I thought there was a lot of other pitches that they just missed that I'd be more mad about. For me, it's just going back to work, working on things that I need to work on, staying over the rubber, not getting too quick, that kind of stuff."
Yefry Ramirez, whom the Orioles had been impressed with in long relief, allowed two more runs on a trio of singles and a wild pitch to give the Royals a commanding lead.
Ryan Meisinger surrendered a three-run homer to Ryan O'Hearn in the bottom of the eighth.

HE SAID IT
"Cedric's been great, I think, going back on the ball. Swinging, the homer to start the game and then the double later. It's nice getting a look at that guy. You hear a lot about these guys coming up but don't really get to see them play, I didn't get to see Ced that much in the spring, but any time you can add spring to your team, it changes things." -- Cashner, on Mullins
UP NEXT
Dylan Bundy (7-13, 5.37 ERA), who is coming off a tough August, will get the ball on Saturday night hoping to start off September on a bright note. He'll be opposed by Royals righty Heath Fillmyer (2-1, 4.21 ERA) in the 7:15 p.m. ET matchup.