Ryan Mountcastle has very much gone under-the-radar for the Baltimore Orioles over the past year or so with great performances from Cedric Mullins, Trey Mancini and the recent call-up of Adley Rutschman.
In 2021, Mountcastle hit 33 home runs in his first full season in the big leagues, finishing sixth in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
Funny enough, he played in enough games in 2020, his actual debut year, to also be eligible for the award, finishing eighth that year.
Fast forward to 2022 and Mountcastle is continuing to hit homers for Baltimore and on Wednesday, he became the fastest player in franchise history to hit 50 career home runs.
Baltimore ended up losing to the Blue Jays, 7-6, in 10 innings as Mountcastle led the offense, hitting two homers while driving in three on the night.
His second of the night, a 413-foot shot in the eighth inning off Toronto Blue Jays reliever Yimi Garcia, was the record-breaking homer.
Mountcastle must love Canada because his statistics against the Blue Jays are amongst the best against any single opponent in his career. In 29 games against Toronto, he's hitting .348/.400/.696 with 12 home runs and 23 RBI.
Three of those homers came in this last series, which is a great sign heading into the weekend as the Orioles host the Tampa Bay Rays. He's currently riding a six-game hitting streak and has gotten a hit in all but three games so far in June.
Baltimore unfortunately was only able to take one in Toronto, a 10-2 blowout in the series finale where Mountcastle went 2-for-5 with two RBI.
The Orioles sit with a 28-37 record, 6.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for fourth place in the AL East.
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