Baltimore Orioles: The Brooksy Awards, August Edition

September has arrived and with that, the newest edition of the Brooksies are here! The Baltimore Orioles enjoyed their third consecutive winning month and provided a plethora of Brooksy nominees from which to choose. Without any further delay, let’s get into last month’s winners:

Best Hitter: Adley Rutschman

Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo were finalists, but Baltimore’s Best Baseball Boy was too good to deny the Brooksy from.

Rutschman and his .261/.397/.446 slash line led the team in walks, runs, doubles (tied), wOBA, and wRC+ In August. The advanced nature of his plate discipline is worth lauding specifically. He walked as many times (22) as he scored. His 19% walk rate is over four percent higher than his 14.7% strikeout rate. Only Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and Lars Nootbaar walked more than Rutschman did in August. He’s also hugged more pitchers than all three combined.

Baltimore Orioles: The August Brooksy Awards

Best Pitcher: Dean Kremer

When Dean Kremer introduced us to his man bun, I was skeptical; how could you possibly restrict the flow of such a wonderful head of hair? If it was up to me, MLB would be littered with players whose hair resembled professional wrestling tag teams from the 80’s.

Kremer had a hiccup in July, but August was a sensational month from the last remaining piece of the Manny Machado trade. Over five starts, he amassed 32 innings and finished the month with a 2.25 ERA/2.59 FIP. Kremer didn’t have flashy strikeout numbers but buttered his bread by doing two crucial things: walking virtually nobody and avoiding home runs.

The highlight of Dean Kremer’s August was undoubtedly his last outing on the 27th against the Astros in which he pitched 7.2 frames and allowed just four hits, one run, and walked none.

Best Single Game Performance – Hitter: Jorge Mateo (@ Rays, 8/12)

Five Orioles batters finished with multiple hits in the 10-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, but only Mateo came out of it perfect. Five at bats, five hits.

The lightning-quick shortstop started with an RBI double off of starting pitcher Corey Kluber in the second inning and followed that up with another double and a run scored in the fifth. Mateo’s third and final at bat against Kluber culminated with an RBI single that scored Rougned Odor, and two singles in the eighth and ninth innings were the final dishes to a proverbial five course meal worthy of a Michelin star. Mateo did get caught stealing second during this game, but we won’t talk about that; the Orioles won and the Brooksy is his.

Best Single Game Performance – Pitcher: Kyle Bradish (@ Astros, 8/26)

That’s how I imagine Astros players felt every time they stepped to the plate to face Kyle Bradish that evening. Bradish has produced improved results since returning from the Injured List in July, none better than the eight-inning masterpiece he painted in Minute Maid Park against the best team in the American League.

The O’s young starter generated seventeen swings and misses from a lethal Astros lineup, thirteen of which came off of a slider that wouldn’t have been hittable if a left and right handed hitter were standing at both sides of the plate simultaneously. A gem of a start against a top-tier team with your team needing wins to continue its playoff push is a lock for this award.

Best Moment: Kyle Stowers hits first career HR to tie game in bottom of the 9th (vs. White Sox, 8/25)

(As an aside, shout-out to Kevin Brown for having the best pipes in the game…dude brings it with his calls every single nights and provides an awesome soundtrack to Orioles baseball)

Baltimore Orioles: Kyle Stowers wins the Brooksy for Best Moment in August

Gunnar Henderson contributed a Brooksy-worthy moment on August’s final day when he hit his first career home run in Cleveland, but it didn’t quite match the theater that was Stowers’ game-tying blast.

Most Baltimore Orioles fans thought the White Sox had stolen one after Jose Abreu gave Chicago the lead in the eighth inning after the O’s had led for nearly the entire game. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Stowers faced All Star closer Liam Hendriks and popped a foul ball to shallow left field where Adam Engel was waiting to secure it and end the game. Then, Engel made a little whoopsie and dropped the ball.

Granted a lifeline, Stowers promptly deposited an 0-2 breaking ball into the right center field bleachers; the game was miraculously tied, and the Orioles would go on to win in 11 innings.