Baltimore Orioles: Anthony Santander Hit Streak Ends in Loss to Rays

After a posting the longest hitting streak of the 2020 season, the Baltimore Orioles right-fielder could not get on base against the Rays on Tuesday night.

The unexpectedly-successful Baltimore Orioles still get to tout Anthony Santander‘s 18-game hit streak.

The streak began on August 5 in the second game of a double-header against the Miami Marlins. Prior to that day, Santander only had four games without a hit, and August 25 marks the fifth of the 28 games he’s played in 2020. The 18-game streak aside, that in itself is rather amazing.

During the 18-game hit streak, Santander’s stats were more than impressive. His slash was .329/.378/.776. He had 25 hits, scored 16 runs, and hit 8 home runs and doubles. He struck out 13 times.

Connections to 2019 Streak

Here’s some irony, in 2019, Santander had a 12-game hit streak. That streak began on August 25, a year to the day that the 2020 streak ended. In the 2019 streak, he hit a slash of .373/.373/.784 with 19 hits, 8 runs, 3 doubles, and 6 home runs. When he’s hot, he’s hot.

Standing with the Best

During his 2020 hitting streak, Santander made his way to the top of the extra-base hit list with 22. He also ended up tied for second with Nelson Cruz on the RBI list with 27. Jose Abreu‘s four consecutive home run at-bats put him atop the AL RBI list.

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Santander is also tied for second in the AL with 11 doubles, sitting just below teammate Hanser Alberto who has 12. Santander’s 10 home runs puts him in second in the AL, again behind Abreu.

Another Broken Streak Against Rays

Sadly, the Orioles also lost the game that ended the Santander hitting streak. They struggled to get hits and runs against the Rays tough pitching. Renato Nunez broke his own streak of 14 days without a home run when he hit one in the first off of Tyler Glasnow. Ryan Mountcastle earned his first MLB RBI when he knocked Hanser Alberto in for the second run of the game in the fourth inning. But, that was it for Orioles scoring at The Trop. Thank you MLB.com for sharing the video of Mountcastle’s first RBI:

The Orioles drop to 14-15 and the Rays improve to 20-11 in their hunt for the top of the AL East. The Orioles face the Rays again on Wednesday night at 6:40 PM with Asher Wojciechowski  pitching against TBD. Like the many teams, the Rays have had a plethora of injuries, especially to their pitching staff.