What was good?
came the first Oriole since 1999 with consecutive four-hit games, with his four RBIs in the latter contest Saturday matching his career high. He was the first AL catcher with four hits, four RBIs and a steal since 2007, when Ramón Hernández did it for the Orioles.
Under team control through 2024
Despite all of the strong performances referenced above, Anthony Santander occupies this space this week. He recorded hits in all but one game this week, with multiple hits in four of them, with the increased output coming since the Orioles designated Keon Broxton and made Santander a permanent part of their center field mix.
Hyde said after Saturday’s victory that Santander has “a chance to be a special hitter,” and the 25-year-old switch-hitter has shown that potential since June 28. Playing in all 25 of the Orioles’ games in that span, Santander has hit .327 with a .574 slugging percentage while the Orioles have gone 13-12, their best 25-game stretch of the year.
What wasn’t?
Chris Davis’ pursuit and subsequent avoidance of a .200 batting average continued in extreme fashion this week. He ended last week with a three-game hitting streak and his average at .192, the highest it’s been after a game since the end of the 2017 season. But his 13 plate appearances this week featured 10 strikeouts, a walk and no hits as his average dropped to .181. The strikeouts left him with 101 in 252 plate appearances, the fewest of any player with at least 100 strikeouts. Núñez started at first over Davis three times during the week, including Sunday against right-hander Félix Peña, as Davis’ up-and-down 2019 continues.
On the farm
Right-hander Dean Kremer is not putting up the strikeout numbers that made him the minor leagues’ leader in the stat a year ago, but he’s proving effective nonetheless. The product of the Manny Machado trade has a 3.02 ERA in 12 starts with Double-A Bowie after pitching six shutout innings Wednesday, his second straight scoreless start. Kremer is part of a Baysox rotation that has the Eastern League’s top three leaders in ERA in Alex Wells, Zac Lowther and Bruce Zimmermann — who was promoted to Triple-A Norfolk on Sunday — plus 2016 top pick Cody Sedlock and Mike Baumann, who threw a no-hitter July 16.