Adley Rutschman returns to Baltimore a Red Sox – and homers in first at-bat

BALTIMORE — Adley Rutschman reported to his longtime workplace on Thursday, Sept. 3, greeted several longtime Camden Yards staffers and made the well-worn walk into the Baltimore Orioles' clubhouse.

He prepared for a game that will be attended by hundreds of fans wearing his jersey as he resumed the fight for an American League wild-card spot.

But the stopover in the Orioles' clubhouse was only to exchange hugs and laughs and talk some smack with his friends. His pregame prep was in service of catching Boston Red Sox starter Jake Bennett, not Orioles rookie Brandon Young.

And the socks and undershirt and all other trappings he pulled on were not in the black and orange of the Orioles – or his college, Oregon State – but rather the red of Boston’s Olde Towne Team.

Rutschman’s professional life was turned upside down five weeks ago, when the only organization he knew, the one he led out of the darkness of a rebuild and into the playoffs traded him north, within the division, to a club that now finds itself running the same wild-card race that his friends on the Orioles are desperate to stay in.

And in his first at-bat as…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/