By now you've heard about Trey Mancini's prodigious home-run hitting, tying a major league record with eight home runs in his first 17 games. You probably saw Mancini's mom enthusiastically cheering for her son last year, when he hit his first home run after an unexpected mid-September callup from Triple-A Norfolk.
The 25-year-old Mancini, who hadn't played the outfield as a professional, quickly adapted to it when the Orioles played him there in early March. Barely a week after playing right field for the first time in a major league game, manager Buck Showalter directed him to play left field for the first time, in Fenway Park, no less. In the minors, Mancini was a first baseman.
"It's a process," Showalter said. "I'm real proud of him and the way that we've been able to kind of give him playing time. We've had more left-handed starters against us than any time I've been here. … We felt like, coming out of spring, we'd face a lot of left-handed starters, and there would be at-bats for him. And it's kind of evolved from there. He's not just a left-on-right guy."
