During this spring training, Mancini said he wouldn’t consider his return from that diagnosis complete until he took the field Opening Day. He crossed that benchmark off his list. Saturday’s shot offered the latest proof that he’s rounding back into his old form.
He had struggled to this point in his return, with five hits in 28 at-bats and strikeouts in more than a third of his plate appearances. It would have been hard to tell, though, by how he jumped on Richards’s first offering. The solo home run launched off his bat at 111.9 mph, per Statcast, the hardest an Oriole has hit a homer since July 2019 and the third hardest of Mancini’s career.
“It was nothing short of what I expected,” Mancini said afterward. “We have the best fans in baseball here, and no matter what, they love us, and that showed today and meant the world to me. . . . I have goose bumps thinking about it still.”
Mancini had a quiet night after the home run, including a groundout with the bases loaded to end an Orioles rally in the eighth. The Red Sox scored twice against Dillon Tate in the 10th, and Baltimore was unable to mount another rally.
