Cole Young drives in two as Mariners top Orioles

Young grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, so hitting a big homer in his first career game at PNC Park must be a dream come true. If the Pirates had it to do over again, they’d happily take him instead of fellow high school infielder Termarr Johnson with the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft. Young, though, ended up going 21st to the Mariners. Young is hitting .253/.319/.372 with seven homers through 80 games as a 22-year-old sophomore, making him pretty close to a league average hitter once playing in T-Mobile Park gets factored in, and is playing well above average defense at second in the process.

Young started off the game with a bang, crushing an 0-2 slider from Kyle Bradish for a 364-foot (105.3-mph EV) solo shot. He also singled twice in the contest. With his three-hit attack, the 22-year-old infielder is slashing .255/.321/.363 with five homers, 32 RBI and a pair of stolen bases in 281 plate appearances with the M’s this season.

The encouraging development here is that Emerson was able to resume swinging a bat and is optimistic he’ll avoid a trip to the injured list. The 20-year-old top prospect is sitting out his third consecutive game due to back tightness with Cole Young drawing another start at shortstop. Emerson is presumably day-to-day heading into Thursday’s series finale in Baltimore.

It sounds like a precautionary decision, but back issues are notoriously complex matters. It’ll be Cole Young moving over to cover shortstop in his absence. Emerson’s absence comes at a challenging time for Seattle’s middle infield mix since veteran J.P. Crawford hit the injured list with a hand contusion earlier on Monday. The 20-year-old prodigy has gotten off to a nice start in his rookie campaign, hitting .242/.319/.548 with four homers and 10 RBI through 19 games. There should be an update on Emerson’s status following the contest. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now.

No word yet on the reason for the move. The Seattle Times’ Adam Jude adds that Emerson went through pregame drills without incident. The timing couldn’t be worse for the Mariners if the decision is injury-related since J.P. Crawford hit the injured list with a hand contusion earlier on Monday. The 20-year-old prodigy was in the midst of a strong debut for Seattle, hitting .242/.319/.548 with four homers and 10 RBI through his first 19 games. There should be an update on his status shortly. It’ll be Cole Young handling shortstop with both Crawford and Emerson out.

Young’s hit was a little 65-mph flare to shallow left that no one had a play on. Fortunately for Young, automatic runner Randy Arozarena had just stolen third base; he almost surely would have been held up if he’d still been on second. Young also walked tonight. His .250/.325/.363 line isn’t going to make him a fantasy darling, but it’s really quite solid for a 22-year-old second baseman playing in one of the game’s toughest hitting environments half of the time.

Young was the only player on either the Mariners or Braves to finish with multiple hits today, and he provided an insurance run in a 2-1 game in the eighth with his third knock. He has four three-hit games this season. Last year, he accomplished that just twice in 77 games after his callup.

Young had a double early in the game, but then came to bat in the ninth inning with the Mariners down one and laced a two-run single into the outfield to give his team a lead they would go on to hold. The 22-year-old now has 19 RBI on the season to go along with a .286/.357/.420 slash line. Considering how weak second base is for fantasy leagues, Young has been a really solid pick-up in most league types.

Young launched his third homer of the season with a solo shot off Matthew Liberatore. The 22-year-old also doubled, singled and improved his slash to .255/.342/.398. That’s a respectable enough line, but it’s even better when you consider Young is 22-years-old and already one of the best defensive infielders in baseball.

It was a scoreless game until Young knocked in the automatic runner. He and Julio Rodríguez, who was intentionally walked, later added insurance by scoring on a Josh Naylor single. Young’s triple, which didn’t miss being a homer by much, was the only extra-base hit by either team tonight. It came off Brent Suter, making him 5-for-12 in lefty-lefty matchups to start the season. That’s pretty good from someone who figured to do a lot of sitting against southpaws this year.