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Baltimore Orioles rookie Coby Mayo's first MLB RBI turned into an adventure of his own making Saturday.
In his 22nd career game, the top-100 prospect finally plated a run with an RBI single to score Ryan O'Hearn from second base in the fourth inning. However, the play went sour when Chicago White Sox third baseman Josh Rojas cut off a throw from left fielder Joshua Palacios and caught Mayo trying to sneak into second base.
The play turned into a rundown between first and second. Mayo was caught quickly, and responded by giving Lenyn Sosa a hard shove before first baseman Miguel Vargas tagged him out. Both Sosa and Vargas took exception to the shove, confronting Mayo as he laid on the ground. Mayo didn't appreciate the treatment, pushing Sosa as he walked away.
Cue the benches clearing.
The Orioles won the game 4-2, but still sit in last place in the AL East at 21-36.
Viewed charitably, the 23-year-old Mayo's shove could be seen as him attempting to draw an interference call on Sosa while running out of the baseline to avoid the tag. However, that tactic doesn't work so well when you instigate the contact with your outstretched arms, with a fielder who has run out of the basepath.
Mayo confirmed that's what he was doing after the game, via MASN's Roch Kubatko:
“Yeah, obviously, just trying to get to second base and trying to get into scoring position for Heston [Kjerstad]," Mayo said. "Cuts it off and got into a rundown. Obviously, just being told in the minor leagues to try to stay in a rundown, and I thought he was in the base line and trying to get some contact. Didn’t mean for it to escalate. I wasn’t trying to do that. It just did.
“The guys always have your back. I think everyone in here will fight for one another — not literally, but, you know, everyone has each other’s back. I think that’s just what happened. Looking out for teammates, and we’ll do the same thing for them.”
Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino provided a little more detail behind the play, but ultimately agreed with the umps for not buying Mayo's attempt:
"Now he's an infielder, right? So when we're in spring training talking about rundowns, one of the things that we constantly talk about with our infielders is not crossing the line because if there's contact with the infielder then it's … I think they call it a Type 2 obstruction, and then you automatically get second base.
"So, I think instinctually Coby kind of sought out the contact right there with the infielder, which, visually, it probably didn't look the best but I think most coaches will probably go, ‘Not a bad baseball play.’ Just didn't work [in] our favor. Umpire made a good call.”
Ultimately, it was a rookie moment for a player whose career hasn't started off on the best foot. Mayo is one of the shinier prospects in the Orioles' youth movement — MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 14 prospect in baseball entering the season — but he entered Saturday hitting .094/.186/.094 in 59 plate appearances between 2024 and 2025.
Mayo, whose power is graded as plus-plus by Pipeline, is still waiting for his first extra-base hit in the big leagues. He has every opportunity to become an everyday player in the Orioles' infield, as soon as he starts hitting like he has in the minors.
Unfortunately, even his first RBI showed he still has some learning to do.
