Adley Rutschman can always count on his family.
They were in the stands during his high school games in Sherwood and throughout his college career at Goss Stadium in Corvallis.
Now they’ve swapped oranges — the Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles’ for the Oregon State Beavers’ — for a trip to Seattle to watch Rutschman’s Orioles play the Seattle Mariners this week.
“I’m really excited,” Rutschman said. “Seattle was always the closest town as far as big league teams when I was younger, went to a lot of Mariners games growing up.”
Rutschman, who won the 2018 College World Series with Oregon State, was drafted by the Orioles with the first overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. After a right tricep strain kept him away from spring training, Rutschman was assigned to the Aberdeen IronBirds for rehab to begin the 2022 season.
He was called up to the major leagues on May 21 as the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball. These first few months in the majors have found Rutschman settling into his role, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
“He’s doing a great job behind the plate,” Hyde said. “He’s just getting comfortable here in the big leagues and performing.”
Fans donning black, white and orange Rutschman Orioles jerseys and Oregon State apparel were crowded behind Baltimore’s dugout at T-Mobile Park on Monday. When the Orioles’ starting lineup was announced, Rutschman’s name drew the most cheers.
He proceeded to give them many more reasons to get loud.
It started in the top of the first inning, when Rutschman produced an RBI single in his first at-bat. He pulled a 1-1 pitch to the right side, sending Seattle second baseman Adam Frazier diving into shallow right field to try to make the play. The ball bounced off Frazier’s glove and Rutschman sprinted to first base, scoring Trey Mancini from third.
It sent those orange-clad fans to their feet, pumping their fists, in celebration. They grew even louder two innings later, when Rutschman crushed a ball to deep right field, belting the third home run of his MLB career.
Before the game, Rutschman made an effort to find his family in the crowd of 21,615 so he could make eye contact and see them throughout the game. As he rounded the bases, he knew just where to point in the crowd.
“They have your back no matter what,” Rutschman said. “Whether I hit a home run or have an 0-4 day, struck out four times, they’d still be smiling at the end of the game.”
This game was particularly important for Rutschman’s grandfather, Ad, who coached football and baseball and was the athletic director at Linfield College over parts of four decades.
Ad attended as many of Rutshman’s games as he could when his grandson was growing up. But now, at 90, he has difficultly traveling cross-country. The easy three-hour drive to Seattle allowed Ad to make the trip and watch the series from the stands.
“The way he’s lived his life, it’s something that I aspire to live like,” Rutschman said. “The way he treats people, I think that carries more weight than anything.”
Thirty games into his big league career, Rutschman is batting .234 with three homers and nine RBIs. But Monday’s opener in Seattle was one of his most productive performances — he finished 2 for 5 with two RBIs and one run scored, while extending his hitting streak to a career-best six games — and one of his most memorable.
“There was a big Rutschman section above our dugout, you could see a lot of orange” Hyde said. “What a great moment for him to come back to the northwest and deliver like that.”
-- Luke Norton, The Oregonian/OregonLive
Ad Choices