Orioles player of the month: Is it hot this summer or is it just Anthony Santander?

The month of July was a tough one for the Baltimore Orioles. After a playing well through June against the best teams in baseball with only one day off, the extra days of rest were supposed to help the Birds continue their winning ways. Instead the O’s went into a slump and finished July with a losing record for the month, coming in at 12-13. However, we should still remember that they are still in first place in the AL East.

While the slump seemed to affect all areas of the Orioles, there was one player that seemed impervious to the dog days of summer. Anthony Santander is putting together a career year and has been particularly good over the last two months. After leading league with 13 homers in June, Santander led the American League again in July with nine more. 

Anthony Santander played lights out in July for the Orioles

Even though he saw a slight decline in home runs, July was Santander’s best month of the season. He slashed .303/.361/.626 in July with an OPS of .987, which bested his .959 OPS from June. Santander is now second in the American League in home runs with 31, just two shy of his career high with two months left in the season. He’s already set a career high for triples this season and could set a high for total bases as well. 

For the month of July, Santander totaled 30 hits, three doubles, one triple, 18 RBI’s, a stolen base and he scored 17 runs. His biggest game was July 19th - in the first game back after the all-star break, Santander mashed two homers and finished the day 3-5 with five RBI’s, leading the Birds to a 9-1 pounding of the Texas Rangers. 

All of that would be good enough but Santander did more. He also made his first career all-star game and scored what wounded up being the deciding run as the AL got back in the win column. Santander helped the O’s finished the month strong taking three out of four from the Toronto Blue Jays and hopefully they can continue that momentum into August.