EL notes: McKenna recovers from rocky start

It was a tough first two months of the season for Bowie's Ryan McKenna on the stat sheet, though he knew he wasn't far away.
The Orioles' No. 7 prospect was routinely getting good wood on the ball, but for one reason or another, things weren't falling in his favor as he hit .209 through April and May.

Never one to waver, McKenna stayed true to his approach, pushed through the mental side of things and has emerged no worse for wear -- to the tune of a .292 batting average since the start of June.
"This game is tough -- there's a lot to it," noted the Baysox center fielder. "I had been hitting some balls hard that didn't fall. Things were not going my way a lot of the time. I never really wavered from a positive, confident mental state. It was one of those times where stuff isn't going your way. That's baseball sometimes. It's part of learning and experiencing the game and moving and developing from that."
It may be no coincidence that McKenna's resurgence came right around the time the team visited New Hampshire and Portland.

A native of Berwick, Maine, the 22-year-old grew up about an hour away from each team, having hawked for the autographs of Hanley Ramirez and Clay Buchholz as a kid at Hadlock Field and played a high school championship game at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium while at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
"I was really excited to go back home in Portland and New Hampshire," said McKenna, who collected nine hits over those six games. "That was a good time to see those stadiums and play those affiliates. I had a bunch of family come. That's always a good morale boost."
Of course, there were also some slight adjustments along the way -- being more mechanically tuned in the cage, putting more weight on the back hip -- allowing him to get back to dialing things in properly at the plate.
"I'm just really trying to be aggressive with those pitches I can drive, and I know I can hit well," he said. "I try to do that always, but sometimes I have to lock that in a little bit harder."
McKenna has really kicked things into high gear in July, hitting .343 over 19 games with 11 extra-base hits, 13 RBIs, 14 runs scored and nine stolen bases on 10 attempts.

He credits Baltimore's patience with playing a big role in keeping him on an even plane and allowing him to battle through the rockier seas of the game with the hopes that he can repay them sometime in the very near future.
"The front office has been really good with me, trying to make sure I get those reps and not trying to rush certain things," said McKenna. "I've only felt that from them. It's been a good experience for me with Baltimore and I'm looking forward to hopefully helping them win a World Series here in the near future, in this rebuild, and being a major contributor to that. It's all been good in regards of development. I feel confident moving forward."
In brief
Mojo month: Hitting .310 in July, Hartford's Tyler Nevin is heating up at the plate after hitting no better than .263 in any prior month this season. In 16 games this month the Rockies' fifth-ranked prospect has already matched his season's monthly high of 10 RBIs, which he collected in June. Nevin also has 11 runs scored and two stolen bases, striking out just six times in 70 plate appearances.
Don't blink: Phillies top prospect Alec Bohm is batting .268, having hit safely in 15 of his first 25 games since earning a promotion to Reading in mid-June. Ten of those contests were multi-hit efforts for MLB's No. 37 overall prospect, complimented by six multi-RBI games. Bohm, who started the season with Class A Lakewood, is hitting .279 in June but has hit over .300 in each month so far this season.
Flashing his claws: After making 11 starts in his first 12 appearances for Erie, Logan Shore has done well in a mixed role of late. Over his last five appearances -- three relief, two starts -- the Tigers' No. 15 prospect went 1-0 with a 0.93 ERA, holding opponents to a .211 batting average. A second-round selection of Oakland in 2016, Shore has a 2.92 ERA in his four relief appearances this season. His prior high was three with Stockton in 2017, where he allowed just one earned run and struck out 16 over 11 1/3 innings.