BALTIMORE — Move over, Iron Man. In 67 years of Orioles baseball, no rookie has hit more home runs than Ryan Mountcastle.
Mountcastle eclipsed Cal Ripken Jr.’s franchise record on Thursday, hitting his 29th of the season in Baltimore’s come-from-behind, walk-off, 3-2 win over the Yankees in 10 innings at Oriole Park. Mountcastle had since Sunday been sitting on Ripken’s record, which stood since 1982.
It fell courtesy of Mountcastle’s 438-foot solo shot off Yanks starter Jordan Montgomery in the sixth inning, providing Baltimore’s only run until Kelvin Gutierrez scored on Clay Holmes’ two-out, two-strike, game-tying wild pitch in the 9th.
Austin Hays’ walk-off single in the 10th allowed the Orioles to play spoiler in their season-series finale against New York.
That pulled the focus temporarily off Mountcastle, whose record-breaking homer put him within one of Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia for the American League rookie lead. Mountcastle is also now tied with Cedric Mullins for the team lead in home runs — if he passes Mullins, he’d be the first Orioles rookie to lead them in homers since Curt Blefary in 1965.
All told, Mountcastle ranks among the AL’s top three rookies in hits (123), homers, doubles (23), RBIs (81), total bases (236), slugging (.497) and OPS (.810).
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