The Baltimore Orioles suffered their third sweep of the season to the Chicago Cubs, in a three-game home stand that saw them go scoreless over the final 24 innings. Team skipper Brandon Hyde didn’t hold back when speaking with reporters postgame.
“Just not very good at-bats,” Hyde told reporters on July 11. “We just didn’t do a whole lot of anything this series, we didn’t play well at all. We gotta play a lot better moving forward.”
Baltimore was outscored 21-2 in the three-game series, with both of their runs coming in the first game on July 9. But Hyde is confident in the team’s ability to bounce back.
“We’re a good team,” Hyde continued. “It’s been a rough few days. We just got flat out beat, and didn’t play well. But we got beat, we got beat by starters, we didn’t do much against their bullpen. We didn’t very good defense for us, and we didn’t throw the ball very well, besides Burnes last night.”
The Orioles will host the New York Yankees–who they still hold a two-game division lead over–in a three-game series before going into the All-Star break.
It will take much better baseball to beat their rivals and protect the division lead.
Gunnar Henderson in a Home Run Drought
Games two and three of the Chicago series are the first consecutive shutout losses for Baltimore since June of 2021.
And the series sweep by the Cubs is the Orioles’ first at home since August of that same season.
Whether or not Baltimore has become home run dependent will have to wait to be decided. But are they Gunnar Henderson dependent?
The team is 19-7 (.730) when Henderson hits a home run this season, and 38-29 (.567) when he doesn’t.
Henderson went without a home run for the series against the Cubs, and has just one in his last 13 games. In that same span, he’s struck out 14 times in 55 at-bats, which is 25% of the time.
It’s his longest stretch without a home run all season, with the second-longest a seven-game stretch in April and May.
Henderson is batting .288/.377/.588 with 27 home runs and 61 RBIs in 2024.
In a stretch where pitching has been inconsistent, the Orioles’ best bats are going cold. They need to get hot in a hurry with the Yankees coming to town.
Anthony Santander Named Baltimore’s 5th All-Star
Prior to the series loss to the Cubs, outfielder Anthony Santander was named as an All-Star replacement. He’ll take the spot of Houston Astros‘ outfielder Kyle Tucker, who’s battling a shin injury.
“It is a blessing,” Santander told Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports. “All the work I’ve put in all these years, and I’m happy and grateful and all the glory to Jesus Christ. I never gave up. Tough injuries early in my career, but always having the right mentality, working hard, able to bounce back and stay here and go out there and play every single game and help the team win, which is more important.”
Santander is slashing .234/.300/.494 with 27 home runs and 68 RBIs in 2024.
He’ll join Corbin Burnes, Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and Jordan Westburg in Arlington, Texas to represent the Orioles.
