Watch: Baltimore Orioles rookie Adley Rutschman ecstatic after hitting his first ever Camden Yards home run
Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman is just settling into the league, but he's already looking pretty comfortable. Over his first 136 at-bats, Rutschman has already hit four home runs. Most of those have come recently too.
Rutschman was the league's top prospect before being promoted earlier this season. He simply dominated in the minor leagues at the single-A, double-A, and triple-A levels. He only logged 14 at-bats at double-A this season, where he batted .417 with a 1.036 on-base plus slugging percentage.
As a result of his performance, Rutschman was quickly promoted to triple-A, where his statistics dropped a little due to the increased competition. However, he still performed excellently with three home runs over just 43 at-bats. In total, he batted .304 with a .921 OPS in the minors in 2022.
Since being promoted to the majors, Rutschman has hit all the expected learning curves and speed bumps. He's batting just .213 over his first 37 games, but those numbers have been slowly increasing over the past couple of weeks. During the last week of June, Rutschman hit .269 with two home runs.
Tonight, Rutschman showed that he's still heating up. In the bottom of the second inning against the Los Angeles Angels, he went deep over Camden Yards' right field wall for his first-ever home field dinger. It was his fourth home run on the year.
.@RutschmanAdley hits his first homer at Camden Yards! https://t.co/okh3t6TKHr
"@RutschmanAdley hits his first homer at Camden Yards!" - MLB
He couldn't believe it was gone at first. He slowed down while rounding the bases at second, looking to right field to ensure the ball was gone. He was running quite fast, thinking the ball was still in the field.
Adley Rutschman couldn't believe it after hitting his first home run at Baltimore Orioles' ballpark
Rustchman hit the ball well on this one. It traveled an estimated 366 feet with an exit velocity of 101.6 miles per hour.
Rustchman is a switch hitter and batted left for this performance. Either way, it wouldn't have mattered, because even Camden Yards' extended left field wall couldn't have held this ball.
2nd
Adley Rutschman vs Chase Silseth
#Birdland
Home Run 💣
Exit velo: 101.6 mph
Launch angle: 24 deg
Proj. distance: 366 ft
This would have been a home run in 23/30 MLB ballparks
LAA (0) @ BAL (1)
🔻 2nd https://t.co/dTn1MbeAwt
"Exit velo: 101.6 mph Launch angle: 24 deg Proj. distance: 366 ft This would have been a home run in 23/30 MLB ballparks" - Would it Dong
At the time of writing, the Baltimore Orioles are up 2-0 on the Angels in the third inning.