As the ball pinballed its way around the right field corner at Camden Yards, Anthony Santander kept chugging. He might’ve been able to reach third base standing upright, but after all that running, the Orioles outfielder slid in head-first.
It was Santander’s first triple since 2020. It drove in all three runners on base. It gave Baltimore (35-20) a healthy lead in the eventual 8-5 win against the Cleveland Guardians after several low-scoring games.
Most of all, it was another top-tier performance from Santander in May.
Last month at this time, Santander was still struggling to find his timing at the plate, a result of both a stiff back and a spring training routine interrupted by representing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. As the season progresses, though, Santander has improved with each passing day.
On Tuesday, his second-inning triple was the brightest spot, spurring Baltimore’s five-run frame. He later added two doubles and scored on Gunnar Henderson’s second run-producing hit of the game in the fifth. Those three extra-base knocks only add to the strong month that has left Santander’s slow start in the rearview mirror.
In May, entering Tuesday’s matchup, Santander was hitting .326 with a .997 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Fourteen of the 33 hits he has recorded this month have been for extra bases.
That dwarfs his production from March and April, when he hit .213 and struck out 10 more times than he recorded hits.
“He’s getting back to what got him here,” Henderson said. “I think he had a little bit of a nagging injury at the beginning of the year, and that probably didn’t help at all — I can tell you it didn’t help. He’s settling and doing exactly what he did last year, going out there and having good at-bats.”
A large part of the improvement comes from Santander’s timing. Earlier in the season, Santander’s load was late, leaving his foot to land a fraction of a second behind when necessary for him to properly identify the pitch, judge whether he wanted to swing, and then throw his hands at the ball.
The results have flipped in May because his timing has returned. After his 11th multi-hit game this month, Santander’s average for the season rose to .275.
“Scuffled a little bit early, but to me, just on time with the fastball a little bit more,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Couple beautiful swings tonight. Love when he goes into left-center.”
The second-inning triple was the biggest blow to Cleveland right-hander Cal Quantrill. The hurler left a 3-2 sinker over the zone and Santander lashed it on a line to plate the three runners on base.
That’s what his teammates have come to expect from Santander in a month that includes 20 RBIs.
“He’ll get into some deep at-bats, nine, 10 pitches,” Henderson said. “And if you leave one over the plate, he’s going to hit it.”
Quantrill wasn’t the only member of the Guardians’ pitching staff to have trouble against Santander. The double in the fifth led to another run, and Santander’s two-bagger in the seventh helped load the bases for the Orioles with no outs — although that time, Baltimore couldn’t score.
The Orioles could’ve used more insurance runs in the seventh, especially after their lead whittled away with three runs against right-hander Kyle Gibson (including a double to right field that Santander couldn’t catch because of a poor first step) and another two charged to right-hander Bryan Baker.
With the game closer, the Orioles needed to turn to right-hander Yennier Cano — their elite setup man who might have had a night off if the offense added on or the pitching staff hadn’t wavered late. It meant Félix Bautista needed to close a game that could’ve been a lopsided win.
“You try to add on, and we didn’t really do that,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We tried to hold on and we didn’t do that very well in the sixth or seventh either.”
If anything, that left Hyde rankled, particularly with a bullpen game scheduled for Wednesday. But their top bullpen arms didn’t crack, and coupled with Santander’s third three-hit game in five games, Baltimore got back on track.
Tuesday marked the first game without Cedric Mullins, who landed on the 10-day injured list with a groin strain. He might be sidelined for weeks, so this group of Orioles needs to fill that void collectively. Through one game, they proved different players can step up in different moments.
There was Gibson’s solid outing, even if it ended prematurely. There was Henderson with his season-high three RBIs.
And there was Santander, who is closing May just as he started it — on fire.
