Santander hits O's first walk-off HR since 2019

BALTIMORE -- Camden Yards’ left-field wall became a point of controversy during the four-game set against the Yankees. It earned some grimaced defense from the home team after complaints from Aaron Boone and Aaron Judge about a couple of lost home runs. The visitors’ nickname? “Build-your-own-park.”

Well, Anthony Santander had no problem with it.

The Orioles’ outfielder cleared the pushed-back wall in left field for a walk-off homer over the Yankees on Thursday afternoon in a 9-6 win. The walk-off long ball, outside of silencing some critics from up north, was the O’s first since 2019, helping them avoid a sweep to their AL East rivals and ending a pair of six-game losing skids -- one against New York specifically and another over their previous six games.

For those reasons and more, Thursday was cathartic. It was highlighted by the Home Run Chain (twice) and a Gatorade shower rather than a close chance gone for naught followed by a mope back to the clubhouse.

“Amazing!” Santander exclaimed in English, before elaborating through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “It feels incredible finally having my first walk-off. I dedicate it to my parents [in attendance on Thursday], who have been there supporting me the entire way through since I was a little kid.”

“Says something about a guy who has ice in his veins,” said starter Bruce Zimmermann.

(Full transparency, according to Santander: “ice in your veins” -- “hielo en tus venas” -- does not have direct significance in Spanish.)

It had been nearly three years since Rio Ruiz played the hero on Aug. 11, 2019, over the Astros. That ball was hit well out to right field -- a homer no matter the year.

As for handling the much-debated wall, ignorance is bliss.

“The most important thing is just not even focus on it,” Santander said. “The most important thing is trying to make hard contact, and when you do, that thing is going to fly out of the park.”

And all told, it was Baltimore’s third walk-off win of the season and their second against New York, along with one over Boston.

“It’s a reward for them,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “… It’s been a tough stretch. We played great in St. Louis, we don’t swing the bat real well in Detroit. … [We] lost two one-run games here against the Yankees, and then win the last game of the series. Hopefully, we can start to continue to take these sorts of at-bats going forward.”

There were few more fitting characters to play hero on Thursday. Santander, fully healthy once again and a steady threat for the O’s a month and a half in, was already on base thrice before his homer. He opened his day with a pair of doubles inside the first three innings. Three days prior, he had homered from both sides of the plate.

That made him the first Oriole to accomplish that since … himself, on Aug. 31, 2019.

“He was the guy. He was hot all day,” said Zimmermann, who had initiated a party with other relievers in the clubhouse at the time of Santander’s blast.

The biggest hope from Thursday is that Santander -- and more so the O’s offense en masse -- can use it as a leaping-off point, a chance to reclaim some of the momentum they relinquished when they followed up a tough-fought series win in St. Louis with a six-game skid.

There are reasons to believe that’s possible. Joining Santander in solving the left-field wall was Robinson Chirinos, who hammered his first homer of the year in the second inning. (Giancarlo Stanton’s fourth-inning blast stands as the only visiting homer to left field this season.) And directly setting up Santander’s heroics was hot-hitting Trey Mancini, who fouled off six pitches as part of a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with a single.

“I thought today [were] some of our better at-bats of the season,” Hyde said.

And soon, momentum might be enhanced by Adley Rutschman, with his MLB debut seemingly a matter of time. Flipping the script to a string of wins would merely double the good vibes Baltimore is trying to build.

So call Thursday just a taste.

“It feels good,” Hyde said. “Yeah, it feels good.”