Santander shocks Astros with go-ahead grand slam
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BALTIMORE -- Anthony Santander’s career-high 38th home run of the season may have been his biggest yet. It was certainly the one that created the most noise.
Santander hit a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning on Friday night, lifting the Orioles to a come-from-behind 7-5 win over the Astros at Camden Yards. The 29-year-old All-Star outfielder ranks third in MLB in homers behind only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (49) and the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (39).
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.
Before Santander stepped to the plate in the eighth, the O’s loaded the bases with no outs, trailing 5-2. Colton Cowser and Adley Rutschman started the rally with back-to-back singles. 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.
Santander followed by smashing a 2-1 fastball from Abreu to right-center field, sending it a Statcast-projected 403 feet. It created a roar at Camden Yards, where the majority of the announced crowd of 39,578 went into a frenzy.
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Ramón Urías padded Baltimore’s lead with a one-out RBI triple that capped the scoring.
The Orioles (75-55) kept pace in the American League East with the Yankees (76-53), who still lead the division by 1 1/2 games.