Parker Meadows and Kerry Carpenter looked at the ball, then at each other, and then at the ball. They waited there, just out of reach, each expecting the other to step in to catch the high fly ball in the right-center field gap.
Neither did.
Gunnar Henderson stood at second with a double that would’ve been an out just about every other time he hit it. But for once the Orioles finally received the kind of break in their direction they’ve needed for so long — and it took just one pitch for it to occur.
The Orioles broke out against the Detroit Tigers on Friday, finally finding a sense of rhythm at the plate that began with a bit of fortune. After Henderson’s free double, Anthony Santander clobbered a two-run home run for the second consecutive game, and Baltimore was off and running to a 7-1 victory.
After Santander’s walk-off, two-run shot Thursday, right-hander Zach Eflin called it a “breath of fresh air.” The win broke a three-game losing streak. That fresh air seemed to carry over to Friday in the form of renewed energy, propelling the Orioles to wins in consecutive games for the first time since they won three straight from Sept. 1 to Sept. 3.
Maybe, just maybe, times are a-changin’ again in Baltimore.
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“Yesterday was a huge game for us,” left-hander Danny Coulombe said. “Tony’s walk-off. I think that really set things in motion and we really came out with a lot of fire today, and you could see the guys were ignited. That’s the goal going into the postseason. It doesn’t matter how you’re playing in August as long as you get there, and you just want to get hot.”
To judge a turnaround on two games out of 162 is a dangerous road, and it wasn’t one manager Brandon Hyde wanted to follow. “I’m not going to react to it,” Hyde said, although he hoped the wins would build confidence.
But, with only eight games remaining after Friday’s win, the margins are narrowed. A spark here could ignite a hot few weeks, and a hot few weeks are enough to make a postseason bonfire.
Santander’s walk-off may have been that spark. His first-inning homer to score Henderson spread it. And then Colton Cowser and James McCann each clobbered two long balls of their own to give the Orioles a season-high five home runs.
“Hopefully, it’s a jump-start,” McCann said. “A big swing by Tony yesterday. What we were able to do offensively in scoring in multiple innings. Something we’ve talked about recently is one pitch, one inning, one game at a time, and that’s what we did today.”
They did it against one of the hottest teams in the majors. The Tigers were eight games below .500 on Aug. 10. After that, they rattled off 25 wins in 35 games entering Friday, pushing them into the American League wild card discussion.
And last week this Tigers team won two of three games against the Orioles. Detroit nearly completed a combined no-hitter one week ago, when it sealed a 1-0 win. It took Henderson’s two-out triple in the ninth inning to break up that piece of history.
That was where the Orioles were just last week. They managed five homers in their previous seven games before blasting five Friday. They were so lost that Baltimore’s batters all decided to change their walk-up songs for a day, hoping a new vibe would change their fortunes. It didn’t work.
But then Santander saved what might’ve been a demoralizing defeat Thursday, avoiding a sweep against the San Francisco Giants. He continued the trend in the first inning against left-hander Tyler Holton, a reliever serving as an opener.
“We got Gunnar on second, nobody out, we catch a break, and then we don’t do a good job moving him,” Hyde said. “And then two outs, two strikes and he [Santander] goes deep. That was really, honestly, a turning point in the game.”
Cowser blasted one to straightaway center and another to right field. McCann notched his third career multihomer game. All of a sudden, the noise swelled at Camden Yards again and the Homer Hydration Station was in frequent use — so much use that one of the nozzles broke. And, as the offense broke out, right-hander Corbin Burnes provided a superb outing.
Burnes faced two-out traffic in the third and sixth innings, but he worked out of both to pitch a gem. The difficult August, during which he allowed 28 runs in five starts, seems well and truly behind him.
In four starts in September, Burnes has allowed just three earned runs. He has thrown 14 scoreless innings against Detroit in consecutive outings, and he did so with eight strikeouts, his most since May 19.
“We’ve played good baseball the last few days,” Burnes said. “If we come out and play like that, we’re a tough team to beat. Now it’s just about keeping it going and playing our baseball and not worry about what’s going on. We’ve got eight games left, so we’ve got to kick it into gear if we want to try to get the division.”
With the postseason approaching, Burnes looks ready. Coulombe returned to the mound for the first time since June 8, freshly activated off the injured list. The offense, for one night at least, looked prepared for prime time.
It’s one game. One night at Camden Yards.
But for the Orioles, amid a trying second half, one night can be enough to inspire optimism after months of dismay.
