Manny Machado goes to bat for Scott Coolbaugh, plus other notes

During an interview to discuss his American League Player of the Week award, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado took two opportunities to pass on some props to Orioles hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh.

It seems at times this year, when the team's hitting or rotation has struggled, some fans point a finger at Coolbaugh or pitching coach Roger McDowell. But unsolicited, Machado said of Coolbaugh: "He has had a big influence on me doing well. Staying on me every day. Getting in the cage, talking with me between innings."

Later Machado was given a chance to expand on that answer and was reminded by a reporter that Coolbaugh has taken some heat from fans this year.

"If he could get up there and grab a bat, he would. You know it is already hard enough to hit. Obviously, I wasn't hitting the first two months and it's not on him. He has nothing to do with it. He's not up there swinging the bat. It's on us. There is a business side of it and people get blamed for our mistakes and for our failures. But he helps us tremendously and goes above and beyond for every single guy in this clubhouse.

"We feed off of that. He's a great guy and he's smart. He has definitely made me a better hitter this year than I would have ever thought of being."

Pretty strong defense of his coach by Machado, who hit .380 (10-for-26) with four homers, four runs and 12 RBIs over six games in the period ending Sunday, including two grand slams. This is his third career AL weekly honor and first since June 15, 2015. He is the third Oriole to win this year joining Jonathan Schoop (July 23) and Tim Beckham (Aug. 7). The Orioles are the only club in the league with three weekly award winners.

Before the All-Star break this year Machado was batting .230/.296/.445 with an OPS of .741. He was struggling and it was testing him mentally and in other ways.

"I mean this year has been a learning experience," he said. "We all learn. You know (Albert) Pujols, (Adrian) Beltre tell me they are still learning and they've been in the game for 20 years. So, it is a learning process and you learn things to get better from. I'm just going to keep going forward and do what I have to do to stay with my goals and stay with my routines I've had for a while."

While he was passing along some props, Machado had some for Beckham. He is batting .424 in 20 games as an Oriole. In 11 games batting leadoff he is hitting .360.

"Just having him on the team has been great," Machado said. "He brings a lot of energy. The last couple of weeks he's been here, he's taken us to another level. Hard to replace J.J. (Hardy) defensively, but he's doing great defensively and offensively. Going in there and taking care of business and working as hard as he can. We're lucky to have him here. Hopefully he keeps playing as well as he is and helps us get where we need to be."

The Orioles are 61-64 after Monday's 7-3 win over Oakland. They hit four homers in the victory and have hit 10 in the last four games and 35 in their past 17 games. The Orioles have 47 games this year where they have hit two or more homers and are 35-12 in those games.

Adam Jones hit two solo homers and added two singles as part of a 4-for-4 night that raised his average from .275 to .281. It was his second four-hit game of this year to tie his career high (also on July 23 against Houston) and the 21st of his career. Jones is batting .425 (17-for-40) his last 10 games. In five games this year against Oakland pitchers Jones is 11-for-21 (.524) with four homers, six runs and nine RBIs.

Welington Castillo hit his 13th homer last night. In 20 games since the All-Star break he is batting .342 with five homers and 13 RBIs.

Schoop hit a laser-beam three-run homer to center in the fifth. It was No. 27 for Schoop, who has 91 RBIs. He hit the blast 404 feet on an exit velocity of 111 mph. Per a note from MLB.com, second basemen have hit five homers of 111 mph or harder this season. Schoop has three of them.

Schoop's 91 RBIs are the second-most by a second baseman (primary postion) in Orioles history. Roberto Alomar had 94 in 1996. Schoop is second in the AL in RBIs, trailing former Oriole Nelson Cruz of the Seattle Mariners, who has 100.

Farm notes: Single-A Delmarva lefty Alexander Wells pitched another strong game last night as the Shorebirds won 4-3 at Lakewood. Wells gave up two runs over six innings to improve to 11-5 with an ERA of 2.45. An Australian native, Wells ranks second in the South Atlantic League in both wins and ERA.

Wells extended his streak without issuing a walk to a remarkable 64 innings. On the season over 136 innings, he has walked 10 and fanned 109. Wells has 17 quality starts and has emerged as a strong candidate to win the Orioles minor league Pitcher of the Year award, which will be announced next month.

Meanwhile Delmarva right-handed pitcher Lucas Humpal has won the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week honor for Aug. 14-20. The 23-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas turned in his best start of the year last Thursday with six scoreless on four hits against Greensboro. He walked one while matching a career-high with 10 strikeouts.

Humpal, a 2016 ninth-round pick out of Texas State, has been a workhorse for the Shorebirds all season. Through 24 appearances (23 starts), he is 7-10 with a 3.92 ERA and leads the SAL with 140 innings pitched. Humpal's 13 quality starts are second most on the team.

Short season Single-A Aberdeen left-hander Zac Lowther gave up one run in six innings in a no-decision last night in Aberdeen's 4-2 loss at Hudson Valley. The No. 74 overall pick in the June draft out of Xavier, Lowther has been outstanding for the IronBirds. He has allowed one earned run or less in all nine of his starts. He is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.14, which would lead the New York-Penn League if he had enough innings to qualify for league leaders. Over 39 1/3 innings, the 21-year-old Lowther has allowed 29 hits with five walks and 48 strikeouts.