An announced crowd of 39,578 packed the seats at Camden Yards on Friday night, and many of those home fans were still there in the eighth inning, 

despite another sluggish start by their Orioles. They were still hoping to see something special.

All of those fans were actually standing in front of their seats as Anthony Santander stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the eighth, 

when Baltimore trailed American League West-leading Houston by three runs.

The orange-clad supporters were pleading for a grand slam. Players in the O’s dugout were on the edge of their seats, hoping for a grand slam.

And then, sure enough, Santander delivered exactly that: a go-ahead, game-winning grand slam.

“That is a reminder of who we are as a team,” said Santander, who sent everybody into a frenzy.

Santander’s slam powered the Orioles to a come-from-behind 7-5 win — their first victory in five meetings with the Astros this season. The 29-year-old All-Star outfielder ranks third in MLB with a career-high 38 homers, behind only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (49) and the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (40).

It was the fourth career grand slam for Santander — two of which came last season and two this year. His most recent slam came in Baltimore’s 11-1 win at Cincinnati on May 5. He also became the first O’s player to hit a go-ahead grand slam with the team trailing by three in the eighth or later since May 13, 2010, when Luke Scott was the hero in a home win vs. Seattle.

The massive swing by Santander is one that could help to get the Orioles back on track.

“I haven’t seen our team react like that in a long time,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It was just a big exhale, it seemed like, in our dugout. Everybody was just so excited. The stadium, that was as loud as it’s been this year, I think.”

The O’s (75-55) kept pace in the American League East with the Yankees (76-53), who still lead the division by 1 1/2 games. But Baltimore has been looking for a spark, considering it hasn’t won more than two in a row since the start of the second half (a three-game streak from July 14-20) and is 10-11 during an up-and-down August.

Entering Friday, the Orioles were averaging 3.3 runs per game over their previous six contests — a stretch that included a nine-run burst vs. the Mets on Tuesday and a shutout loss to the Astros in Thursday’s series opener.

Down 5-2 in the eighth, Baltimore loaded the bases against hard-throwing Houston right-hander Bryan Abreu via a rally that began with consecutive singles from Colton Cowser and Adley Rutschman. Then, Gunnar Henderson reached on a fielder’s choice as right-hander Bryan Abreu unsuccessfully tried to throw out Cowser, who was retreating to third on a ball hit back to the mound. The umpires reviewed the safe call, but it stood, keeping Cowser at third with no outs.

Santander followed by smashing a 2-1 fastball from Abreu to right-center field, sending it a Statcast-projected 403 feet. The 98.5 mph heater was 3.9 feet off the ground, per Statcast, making it the ninth-highest pitch hit for a home run in MLB this season and the highest by an Oriole.

“I was looking fastball. That’s a guy who throws 99 mph, and they’ve been throwing me up and in the whole game,” Santander said. “The one that I took on 2-0, I was automatically taking right there. 2-0, bases loaded, no outs, you don’t want to be too aggressive in that situation. I was a little bit aggressive on 2-1, looking for that fastball up.”

“Honestly, I don’t know how he hit that ball,” Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said.

As soon as the ball left Santander’s bat, he knew it was gone. He watched the ball, flung his bat and then flexed toward his teammates.

Even if the defending AL East champs haven’t looked quite like themselves in recent weeks, nobody in Baltimore’s clubhouse was surprised by what transpired.

“That’s kind of this team,” said left-hander Cade Povich, who allowed five runs in five-plus innings. “I can come in here and be able to watch and not be surprised when something like that happens, when the team comes back into it. I don’t think we’re really ever out of any games.”

Santander’s steadying presence in the heart of the Orioles’ lineup has been a constant for much of his eight-year MLB career, but especially over the past three seasons. He often finds a way to provide a spark and has the type of personality that keeps the energy high, even in tough times.

Maybe this is the start of a pennant push for Baltimore. Maybe the O’s — despite all their injuries and recent inconsistency — will get hot from here.

But as Hyde and his players know, each win only counts as one, no matter how thrilling.

“We’re facing the Astros tomorrow and Framber Valdez, who’s really good. It’s all about the next day,” Hyde said. “But this one feels good tonight, because it’s been rough. It’s been hard.”

Follow us to see more useful information, as well as to give us more motivation to update more useful information for you.

Source: USA Today