Mullins’ ‘incredible’ catch, homer spark win
Team debuts ‘hydration station’ in series opener
Cole Irvin lifted both arms above his head, his mouth agape at what he had just witnessed.
“Might be one of the best plays I’ve ever had behind me in general,” the Orioles starter said. “Shoot, I don’t know if I’ll ever see a play like that while I’m pitching. From the angle I had, I didn’t think there was a chance he would catch it, and all of a sudden, there’s a glove, and it’s in it.”
“He” was Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins, and Irvin had watched Mullins sprint and leap parallel to the ground to snare a line drive that appeared certain to go over his head in the first inning of Monday’s 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
In a career full of defensive splendor, the play ranked with Mullins’ most splendid.
He starred at the plate as well, homering and driving in three runs. The Orioles (10-6) spent much of last weekend on the wrong end of a hot offense visiting from Milwaukee. They turned bully in their series opener against the Twins with 12 hits, including home runs from Mullins, designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn and shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Five Orioles had at least two hits.
Not one of the blows made the home crowd of 14,611 bellow louder than it did for Mullins’ first-inning catch.
“The fellas say the catch was No. 1,” Mullins said when asked if he preferred it or his fourth home run of the season. “I’ll take their word for it.”
He called his dash for the ball an “all-out effort.”
“It’s one of those balls where you really don’t know until you get there,” he said.
Mullins said the catch might have been the best of his career because he was diving at an angle away from the batter, but manager Brandon Hyde might still put it behind Mullins’ home run-saving catch robbing the Mariners’ Ty France in Seattle in August. He homered in that game as well.
“But this play, I think [outfielder Austin] Hays said it felt like he was hovering over the ground for a while and he caught that ball behind him,” Hyde said. “Ced is a Gold Glove center fielder, and he’s playing great defense for us so far again this year.”
Irvin said he would gift Mullins a bottle of whiskey, his traditional thank you for defenders who make spectacular grabs behind him.
“Incredible play,” he said, still shaking his head in the postgame clubhouse. “Incredible.”
The Orioles left-hander, who entered with an 8.10 ERA, fell one out short of a potential decision but wiggled out of trouble enough — aided by that stupendous grab from Mullins and a timely 5-4-3 double play in the fourth inning — to produce his best start of the season.
He missed his spot on a home run in the second inning. “Everything else felt like I was in rhythm,” he said.
“It’d be great if he could give us some length tonight,” Hyde said before the game, cognizant that he had used four relievers in Sunday’s win over the Brewers and that no Orioles starter had lasted more than five innings in the weekend series.
Hyde knew it might be an uphill climb against the defending American League Central champions and a lineup packed with eight right-handed hitters. But he hoped Irvin would use his cutter to pound the inside half of the strike zone.
It was Irvin’s sinker that nearly undid him in the first inning, when Twins shortstop Kyle Farmer lined it to deep left center with a runner on third and two out. But Mullins bailed him out with his leaping over-theshoulder catch, perhaps the defensive play of the season to date.
Third baseman Jordan Westburg handed Irvin a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a two-out double off Minnesota starter Louie Varland.
Twins third baseman José Miranda answered with a 411-foot solo home run off an Irvin fastball in the top of the second, but O’Hearn pushed the lead to 3-1 with an even longer blast, 435 feet to center, off Varland in the bottom of the third. That meant O’Hearn was the first to imbibe from a new “hydration station” in the Orioles dugout, which features four spigots rather than the one available on the retired “homer hose.”
The Orioles added another run in the bottom of the third on a Mullins sacrifice fly that scored first baseman Ryan Mountcastle.
Irvin left with a 4-2 lead and two outs in the fifth, which meant another long night at the office for an Orioles bullpen that has been essential to the team’s winning start.
The Orioles led 7-2 after Henderson’s home run in the bottom of the sixth, but the Twins cut it to 7-4 on a two-run double from catcher Ryan Jeffers that handed reliever Keegan Akin his first two earned runs of the season.
From there, Yennier Cano and Craig Kimbrel finished off Minnesota, with Kimbrel pitching a perfect ninth inning for his fourth save of the season and 421st of his career. His next save will tie him with Billy Wagner for seventh on the all-time list.
With the victory, the Orioles guaranteed they would not be swept for a 97th consecutive series, the longest streak in AL history.