May 12, 2023: Cedric Mullins christens Bird Bath, leads Orioles to victory with cycle-completing homer

On May 12, 2023, two teams with early-season hopes of playoff berths clashed at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in the first of a three-game series. The Pittsburgh Pirates, leading the National League Central Division,1 visited the Baltimore Orioles, who were in second place in the AL East.

The Orioles (24-13) had won 18 of their past 25 games (72 percent) as they attempted to keep up with the fast-starting Tampa Bay Rays.2 Meanwhile, the Pirates (21-17) had won 20 of their first 28 games before losing nine of their next 10. They held just a half-game lead in their division.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish, who had started 23 games for Baltimore as a rookie in 2022, was making his sixth start of ’23. His record was 1-1, with a 5.95 ERA. Six days earlier, on May 6, the 26-year-old Bradish had allowed three runs in five innings against the Atlanta Braves’ high-powered offense,3 exiting with a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately for Bradish, the Orioles bullpen blew the save in the bottom of the eighth.

The Pirates started 6-foot-5, 245-pound right-hander Johan Oviedo. A 25-year-old native of Cuba, Oviedo was in his first full season with Pittsburgh.4 After winning two of his first four starts, he had struggled in his three most recent outings, losing twice and seeing his ERA rise to 5.59.5

The star of the Friday night game was Baltimore center fielder Cedric Mullins, who had debuted in 2018, then endured three seasons with more than 107 losses before the Orioles broke through with a winning record in 2022.6 Mullins emerged from a reserve role in 2020 to become Baltimore’s everyday center fielder and leadoff hitter. His best season was 2021, when he stopped switch-hitting and began batting solely from the left side. Mullins joined the 30-30 club in ’21 by smacking exactly 30 home runs and stealing exactly 30 bases. He was named to the AL All-Star team and also won a Silver Slugger Award.

The first two innings were scoreless. In the top of the third, Pittsburgh’s Ji Hwan Bae led off with an infield single.7 He advanced to third on a wild pitch and groundout. Ke’Bryan Hayes then grounded to Jorge Mateo at short, who threw home in an attempt to get the speedy Bae, but the throw was wide and Pittsburgh had a run. Bradish retired the next two batters to end the inning.

In the bottom of the third, Mullins, who had flied out in the first inning, lined a single to right with one down. He advanced to third on a balk and a groundout but was stranded there by Oviedo.

Mullins gave the Orioles another chance to tie the game in the fifth. With two outs, he launched an Oviedo pitch into the right-center gap. The ball bounced just once before hitting the wall, and Mullins never broke stride, sliding into third base with his third three-bagger of the season.

The triple made Mullins the first Oriole to trigger a new celebration for fans at Camden Yards – the Bird Bath. With each extra-base hit or run scored, a man wearing a “Mr. Splash” jersey would spray a hose and soak the 156 fans in Section 86 of the ballpark, affectionately nicknamed the “Bird Bath Splash Zone.”8

That was Baltimore’s first extra-base hit of the game, and Mr. Splash doused the fans in Section 86.9 After he brushed off the dirt from his slide, Mullins made a sprinkler motion with his hands and arms toward the Baltimore dugout, and the pitchers in the dugout responded by spouting water onto the field. Adley Rutschman walked, but Oviedo struck out Anthony Santander for the third out.

Bradish kept Baltimore within a run, setting down the Pirates in order in the fifth and negating Bryan Reynolds’ leadoff single in the sixth by striking out Andrew McCutchen and getting Carlos Santana to ground into a double play. Ryan Mountcastle finally got the Orioles on the board in their half of the sixth. He led off with a triple down the right-field line, and Mr. Splash went to work again. Pittsburgh challenged the play, insisting the ball was foul, but the call on the field stood.

Adam Frazier – a former Pirate who had signed with Baltimore as a free agent in December 2022 – walked, and Oviedo’s evening was finished. He had been “effectively wild,”10 reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, scattering four hits and five walks while allowing just one earned run through five innings. He had thrown only 44 of his 86 pitches for strikes.

Dauri Moreta, acquired in the offseason from the Reds, came on to maintain Pittsburgh’s lead. He struck out Austin Hays11 on three pitches but then bounced a slider12 past catcher Austin Hedges, allowing Mountcastle to score.

Pittsburgh grabbed the lead back in the top of the seventh. Southpaw Danny Coulombe replaced Bradish on the mound to start the inning. After Jack Suwinski lined out, Connor Joe blasted his fifth home run, down the left-field line.

With one out and Baltimore trailing by a run in the seventh inning, Mullins “prompted more water”13 into the Splash Zone by swinging at new reliever José Hernández’s first offering and grounding a double into right field. Right fielder Joe cut the ball off just feet before it reached the warning track, and Mullins held at second base for his third hit of the game.

Three pitches later, Rutschman lined a double into left, driving in Mullins with the tying run and giving Mr. Splash another opportunity to soak the fans. It was Baltimore’s first hit in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position. That brought Pirates skipper Derek Shelton out of the dugout to make another pitching change. Duane Underwood entered in relief of Hernández. He struck out Santander, but Mountcastle grounded one up the middle for an RBI single, giving the Orioles the lead, 3-2.

Baltimore kept the offense going in the eighth inning. Hays singled and Gunnar Henderson walked. Mateo grounded into a double play with Hays taking third. Terrin Vavra worked a full-count walk, bringing up Mullins, who was already 3-for-4 in the game. He lifted a 1-and-1 pitch onto the elevated flag court in right for a three-run homer (and another splash episode!). Baltimore’s lead was 6-2, and Mullins had completed hitting for the cycle.

Manager Brandon Hyde sent in Austin Voth, Baltimore’s third reliever of the night, for the ninth, but Voth struggled, allowing the first three Pirates to reach on a walk and two singles, which led to a Pittsburgh run. With nobody out, the tying run at the plate, and the game now a save situation, Hyde brought in closer Félix Bautista, who struck out the next three batters (all swinging) to “send the Pirates home frustrated once again,” according to the Post-Gazette.14 Baltimore won, 6-3. It was the fifth time in the early season that Bautista had struck out the side to preserve an Orioles victory.

Bradish’s six-inning, three-hit, one-run performance was his second quality start of the season.15 In their past seven games, against three divisional first-place teams – the Braves, Rays, and Pirates – Baltimore had posted a 2.52 earned-run average. This included four quality starts. Bradish continued to shine as the season progressed. He finished 2023 with a 2.83 ERA, third-best in the AL.16

In his debut, Mr. Splash was busy; five of the Orioles’ nine hits went for extra bases and six Baltimore runners crossed home plate. The new fan feature became popular, and within a few weeks the section sold out for the rest of the season.17

With his 4-for-5 performance at the plate, Mullins increased his batting average by 20 points to .268, and his OPS jumped 71 points to .843. Mullins became the seventh player in Orioles history to hit for the cycle. His rare feat came just 11 months after teammate Hays’s accomplishment.18 Further, Mullins was the second of five players to hit for the cycle in the 2023 season.19 (Unfortunately for him, Mullins suffered a right abductor groin injury on May 29, and spent two stints on the injured list, missing more than 40 games. By the end of the season, his batting average had dropped to .233.)

The Orioles gained a game in the AL East standings on the Rays, who lost to the New York Yankees. The Pirates’ loss dropped them into second place in the NL Central, a half-game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, who had defeated the Kansas City Royals. Baltimore eventually finished the season with 101 wins, capturing its first division title since 2014. Pittsburgh struggled from May through July, and by the All-Star break, the Pirates had dropped to fourth place in their division, where they finished the season with 76 wins.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland, Gary Belleville, and Kurt Blumenau for their insights and suggestions.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL202305120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2023/B05120BAL2023.htm

Video highlights of Mullins’ cycle can be found at https://www.mlb.com/news/cedric-mullins-hits-for-the-cycle.

Notes

1 When the season began, the Pirates were given just a 4 percent chance of making the playoffs. See https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/MLBmain_powerrankings/mlb-2023-season-preview-opening-day-rankings-playoff-odds-all-30-teams. The Orioles were given only a 7 percent chance.

2 The Rays began the 2023 with 13 consecutive victories. They completed a three-game series against the Orioles on May 10 (losing two of the three contests). Even with their 29-9 record, they were only 4½ games ahead of the Orioles in the AL East standings. The Rays defeated the New York Yankees on May 11, so as play began on the 12th, Baltimore (24-13) was 5 games back in the standings.

3 The Braves finished the 2023 season with 307 home runs, tying the major-league record set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins. Their .501 team slugging percentage earned them the inaugural Silver Slugger Award given to the best offensive team in each league.

4 On August 2, 2022, Oviedo was traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with minor leaguer Malcom Nuñez to the Pirates for José Quintana and Chris Stratton.

5 Oviedo had allowed 19 runs (17 earned) in his last three starts.

6 From 1954, when the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles, through 2017, the team’s record for losses in a season was 107 (1988). In 2018 the Orioles lost a franchise-record 115 games. They then lost 108 in 2019 and 110 in 2021. The pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign saw the Orioles finish with a 25-35 record.

7 This was Bae’s 11th infield hit of the season, best in the majors. See Jason Mackey, “Bullpen’s Implosion Erases Late Advantage,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 13, 2023: C2.

8 Nathan Ruiz, “Power Cycle,” Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2023: D1. Mr. Splash wears the number 86 beneath his name. Section 86 lies in the left-center-field bleachers, next to the bullpens.

9 The forecast for May 12 called for a mostly sunny evening. The daytime temperature had reached 84 degrees, and a low of 66 was predicted. Great weather for a sprinkling.

10 Mackey.

11 Hays came into the game batting .304, the 10th-best batting average in the American League.

12 Mackey.

13 Ruiz.

14 Mackey.

15 A quality start is awarded to the starting pitcher when he pitches six or more innings and allows three or fewer runs. The Orioles starting pitchers had managed only seven quality starts in their first 32 games of the season, including four in their last seven games.

16 Bradish finished the regular season with a WAR of 4.9, third-best among AL pitchers.

17 Scott Allen, “In the Orioles’ Bird Bath, ‘the vibes are always at an all-time high,’” Washington Post, September 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/09/19/orioles-bird-bath/.

18 The seven Orioles batters to hit for the cycle as of the end of the 2023 season were Brooks Robinson (July 15, 1960), Cal Ripken Jr. (May 6, 1984), Aubrey Huff (June 29, 2007), Felix Pie (August 14, 2009), Jonathan Villar (August 5, 2019), Austin Hays (June 22, 2022), and Cedric Mullins (May 12, 2023).

19 The players to hit for the cycle in 2023 were Luis Arráez (Miami Marlins, April 11), Mullins, J.T. Realmuto (Philadelphia Phillies, June 12), Elly De La Cruz (Cincinnati Reds, June 23), and José Altuve (Houston Astros, August 28).