Only homers hurting Bundy as he rolls on
Mancini comes through with runner in scoring position
Whether he’s been the stellar edition of himself that he was to start the season, the limited one who struggled in early May, or the more recent one who has regained his top-of-the-rotation form, Dylan Bundy has had home runs follow him at every turn this season.
In Sunday’s10-4 win over the Marlins, the only two blemishes on Bundy’s line were a solo home run by Justin Bour in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the sixth by Miami’s All-Star first baseman.
They were Bundy’s 17th and 18th home runs allowed this season, and made it so 25 of the past 28 runs he’s allowed over his past eight starts have been via home run, and 34 of the 44 runs overall.
“I think the one that will bite him today is the three-run one,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Usually, they are solo and for the most part, he always seems to be a pitch away. It’s been a challenge for all of our starters it seems like.”
“It doesn’t matter how they get the runs,” Bundy said. “They got them today. I haven’t really looked into it too much, but I’ve just got to get the ball down.”
The long ball has been responsible for most of Bundy’s headaches this season, and when he avoids them, he typically finds success. He’d posted back-to-back shutouts in his previous two starts, and with 10.04 strikeouts per nine innings this season, is missing bats at the highest rate of his career.
But a career-high home run/fly ball rate of 15.7 percent has made it so there’s been plenty of damage. Eight of the home runs he’s allowed have been solo home runs, helping keep his ERA at a reasonable 3.81.
That early-May stretch during which he allowed nine home runs and 22 runs in nine innings was fueled largely by home runs, too, and Bundy said then that it was a matter of finishing his pitches and not leaving them over the plate. Bour hit an elevated changeup for his second home run.
“I thought he got a little tired and started elevating the ball a little bit,” Showalter said. Mancini ends RISP streak: Trey Mancini acknowledges that he hasn’t been good at hiding his frustration with his season-long struggles at the plate with runners in scoring position. He knows it, his teammates know it, his manager and coaches know it, and after he slammed his helmet emphatically after stranding a pair of base runners in the eighth inning of Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Marlins, everyone knew it.
“The helmet slam was kind of minor to what I was feeling at that moment,” Mancini said. “I can’t even really describe it. And I haven’t really done a good job of leaving it at the field, too. This is my life and I want to be good at it and I feel like I haven’t been doing that the last month, so, yeah, it’s been really difficult.”
And while Mancini also realizes one hit won’t free him of that feeling, there was a subtle sense of relief whenheplayed a part in the Orioles’ 10-4 win over the Marlins on Sunday, a victory that represented the club’s top offensive output in more than a month. Mancini capped a three-run third inning Sunday with a two-out RBI single that ended a 0-for-21 streak with runners in scoring position.
The acknowledgement from those in Orioles uniforms was subdued — third-base coach Bobby Dickerson gave Mancini a high-five and patted him on the chest between innings, and teammates Jonathan Schoop and Jace Peterson offered fist bumps — but it served as much-needed encouragement to a hitter searching for something to build on.
“You get to know the guys pretty well and know that their faces are telling you a story,” Showalter said. “This is the first time he’s gone through something like this. You’re trying to be real supportive with not only him, but everybody. We have three or four conversations a day. We’re going to keep trying to create some positive vibes. I’m hoping it turns for a long time.”
Last season, Mancini was the Orioles’ most-productive hitter with runners in scoring position, batting .340 with a 1.091 OPS in those scenarios. But this season, Mancini has struggled, hitting .082 with a .353 OPS entering Sunday with runners in scoring position.
“It seems like I’ve been searching for a month,” Mancini said. “I’ve had so many people trying to help me out and help me through this, but at the end of the day, it’s got to be you.”
In Mancini’s eighth-inning at bat Saturday, he came to the plate with runners at the corners and two outs, worked his way out of a 0-2 hole and hit a sharp grounder up the middle that Marlins shortstop JTRiddle deflected before corralling the ball and throwing it to first in time to get Mancini.
“I try not to show much emotion on the field one way or the other, but I thought I finally came through with a hit there and it hits off his glove and the shortstop makes a good play,” Mancini said. “Last year, [hitting] with runners in scoring position, that was my bread and butter. It was one of the best things I did, and this year’s I’ve massively struggled and a lot of times, when I do have good [at-] bats in those situations, stuff like that happens, it just kind of goes at somebody. It’s just a culmination of everything.”
Mancini’s hard-contact percentage is nearly the same — 32.4 percent compared with 34.1 percent last season — as is his strikeout rate (24.5 percent this year and 23.7 last year) and he’s actually drawing more walks this year (9.1 percent) than last year’s 5.6 percent.