It’s no secret that Adley Rutschman has taken the MLB world by storm in his sophomore season.
Rutschma showed glimpses of his potential last season, but he’s been absolutely incredible in Year 2. On Thursday, that hot streak continued as he sent the Baltimore Orioles home winners with a career-first.
In the bottom of the ninth of Thursday afternoon’s game against the Oakland A’s, Rutschma belted the second pitch of the inning to deep center field for the first walk-off home run of his young career.
Here’s another angle of the home run:
Baseball can be a funny game sometimes. Before Rutschman dug into the batter’s box for his fifth at-bat of the game, the 25-year-old was 0-for-4 and had left three on base. But one swing of the bat changed his fortunes on Thursday, as his fourth home run delivered Baltimore its seventh win of the season and a series win over the hapless A’s.
In 51 at-bats this season, Adley Rutschman is hitting .373/.467/.627 with a 1.094 OPS, four home runs, nine RBIs, and nine runs scored. Yes, it’s a small sample size as the Orioles have only played 13 games on the young season, but Rutschman is showing exactly why he was the first overall selection in the 2019 MLB Draft.
The MLB world reacted to Rutschman’s massive home run on social media:
Adley Rutschman in high leverage situations so far this season:
6 AB
3 H
2 BB
1 HR
3 RBI
.500 AVG
1.625 OPSCLUTCHMAN. pic.twitter.com/wfiPtxN0pn
— DJ (EXTEND ADLEY) (@WhereTheOsAt) April 13, 2023
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.