Orioles C Adley Rutschman Hits First MLB Home Run
Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman entered Wednesday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays with zero home runs in his big league career.
Since debuting for Baltimore on May 21, MLB's No. 1 prospect had been held homerless at the plate as he continued to traverse and get himself adjusted to big league pitching.
Luckily for him and Orioles fans everywhere, that drought ended on Wednesday at Rogers Centre in Toronto as Rutschman hit his first MLB homer off Toronto Blue Jays starter José Berríos.
Rutschman's homer traveled 411 feet with an exit velocity of 103.2 MPH, the third-hardest hit ball for him this season that resulted in a hit.
His two hardest-hit balls of the year both resulted in hits, a 110 MPH single and a 108 MPH double, both against the Kansas City Royals on June 11.
The Orioles, contrastingly to past seasons, have played much better this year and with Rutschman hopefully turning a corner and producing more power-hitting numbers, that will only help out their cause.
It was his first homer since his time at Triple-A Norfolk earlier in the year, where he hit three homers in 12 games with the Tides.
Right now, Rutschman is hitting just .184 in the big leagues, but in his last seven games, he's hitting .286 with a .919 OPS.
Those numbers are incredibly encouraging for the Orioles and encouraging for him. Unfortunately for Baltimore, Adley's two-run shot has been the only offense so far on the day as they're losing 6-2 to the Blue Jays.
Baltimore has one more game in Toronto before heading back home to Camden Yards for a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend.
