About a month before Ryan Mountcastle’s major league debut, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was asked whether mastery of his new left field position was a prerequisite to be promoted or if the club would settle for calling him up primarily as a designated hitter.
Once Mountcastle joined Baltimore in late August, Hyde followed through on that, with Mountcastle making only two of his 36 starts at DH. But after Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Seattle Mariners, Mountcastle has been the designated hitter for six of the team’s first 11 games. Four of his five starts in left field coincided with the games both Austin Hays and DJ Stewart were on the injured list for their respective hamstring strains.