Hays, Santander prove O's outfield mix is still potent

TORONTO -- Some Orioles fans may have been worried. General manager Mike Elias was not.

Baltimore’s season-opening starting outfield of Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander hadn’t been producing. The three pre-rebuild mainstays, who each have a sizable track record of big league success, were hitting a combined .193 (77-for-400) entering May 27.

Still, Elias expressed confidence in the trio when asked for his level of concern last Friday.

“Probably not as concerned as people watching are, because we believe in those guys,” Elias said. “We’ve seen what they’ve done over the years. We know what their skill level is. We know what baseball’s like. And they’re going to do better than this. It’s coming.”

It’s here.

Hays hit his first two homers of the season and Santander also went deep, powering the Orioles to a series-opening 7-2 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Monday night. The veteran duo combined to go 4-for-8 with five RBIs.

“Those are two big pieces of our lineup, and for them to get hot is huge for us, especially for this stretch coming up,” said Baltimore starter Grayson Rodriguez, who allowed two runs (one earned) over a season-high 6 2/3 innings. “It’s going to be a team effort. It’s going to take everybody. And when they’re swinging the bat well, things are going to go good for us.”

Four games into a stretch of 30 contests in 31 days, Hays and Santander’s bats are coming alive at an opportune time for the O’s (38-20).

After going 87 plate appearances without a home run to begin the season, Hays recorded his sixth career multi-homer game. His most recent two-homer performance came last Sept. 19 at Houston -- which had also been the last time he went deep, as the 28-year-old snapped a career-long home run drought of 118 plate appearances.

Hays went 3-for-41 over his first 17 games, and just as his bat started to pick up -- he went 2-for-4 over a pair of contests in Kansas City on April 19 and 20 -- he went on the injured list with a left calf strain. However, he used the downtime to his advantage, working to correct an issue that stemmed from the illness he had late in the spring.

“I had time to put my strength and size back on that I had lost when I got sick toward the end of Spring Training, [and] I really started feeling like myself,” said Hays, a 2023 All-Star who is hitting .316 (12-for-38) in 14 games since coming off the IL. “And now, I’m able to drive the ball like I was before I lost that weight, so I’m feeling good.”

Both of Hays’ homers on Monday came off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman -- a two-run blast to left in the fourth and a solo shot to right-center to lead off the seventh.

Before those, Santander gave the Orioles an early lead with a two-run homer off Gausman in the second to open the game’s scoring. It was the 29-year-old’s 11th home run of the season, which ranks second on the team behind only Gunnar Henderson (19).

Santander, who extended his hitting streak to a season-high six games, has gone deep in four of his past 10 contests.

“Bat speed is there, looks like he’s getting to the high heater right now,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Good swings by him.”

“When he’s going, we’re going, we’re scoring a lot of runs,” Hays added.

With the emergence of Colton Cowser (the American League Rookie of the Month in March/April), the playing time for both Hays and Mullins has gone down from last year. Hays’ recent performances could get him more time in the lineup.

Baltimore is still trying to get Mullins’ bat going, although the 2021 All-Star continues to play tremendous defense when he’s in center field. But the 29-year-old (who was out of the lineup Monday) is hitting .181 after going 1-for-20 over his past nine games.

For now, the Orioles have enough other potent bats throughout their lineup to continue playing well. They hit a season-high-tying four homers in the opener in Toronto -- pushing their 2024 total to 88, second in MLB behind only the Yankees (90) -- as Ramón Urías also went deep, hitting a solo homer in the ninth.

The O’s have three four-homer games, two coming over the past three days.

“I think it’s just the ebb and flow of the season,” Hays said. “You’re going to get hot, you’re going to cool off, you’re going to heat back up. The weather’s getting hotter now, the ball usually starts to fly better. Gonna have a good June.”