– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — On every occasion the Oakland Athletics dented the scoreboard, the Baltimore Orioles answered, again and again.
In particular, Ryan Mountcastle had the most definitive answers for the Orioles, and a couple of mighty swings led him to having one of the best nights of any player to ever wear an Orioles uniform.
Mountcastle smacked two home runs, including a grand slam in the seventh inning, to spur a come-from-behind 12-8 victory by Baltimore over the Athletics inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Tuesday evening. In total, Mountcastle drove in nine of BAltimore’s 12 runs on the evening, tying a single-game team record for RBI set by two Orioles legends, Eddie Murray and Jim Gentile. .
The decisive blow in the seventh came with the Orioles clinging to an 8-7 lead, as A’s manager decided to intentionally walk Adley Rutschman, who was 2-for-3 with a double, to lead the bases and bring up Mountcastle with two outs. Mountcastle had already hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning off Athletics’ starter Kyle Muller to cut Oakland’s lead to 7-6, but, unlike the lefty Muller, the pitcher that the right-handed hitting Mountcastle was facing was right-hander Dany Jiménez.
The result was the same, as Mountcastle cranked a 2-1 pitch 456 feet into the air and well over “Mount Wall-timore” in deep left-center field to give the Orioles a 12-7 advantage.
Mountcastle doubled the number of RBI that he came into the night with, and now leads all of Major League Baseball with 18 on the season.
“The power he has is incredible,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s got great bat-to-ball skills with balls in the strike zone or just off, and you make a mistake and he’s ready to hit. He’s off to a great start this year. Love the confidence he’s playing with right now.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s contest, with all photos taken by DC-area photographer Elliott Brown. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 31 pictures in total.
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