Santander keeps finding ways to get on base

In parts of his five major league seasons, Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander hasn’t been able to post an on-base percentage higher than .315, a level attained in only 37 games in 2020.

Santander played in 110 games last summer and accumulated 438 plate appearances, missing a month with a sprained ankle and being shut down after Sept. 26 with a left knee sprain. He finished with a .286 OBP that again drew attention to his poor pitch recognition and struggles to stay patient in the box.

The Orioles are closing out their series in Anaheim this afternoon, and Santander has reached base in the first 15 games of the season to draw within three of his record. He ranks third in the American League and seventh in the majors with a .452 OBP.

Santander has walked 13 times to rank second in the league behind Seattle’s Jesse Winker. Ten more and he’ll match his total for last season.

The 21 percent walk rate puts Santander in the top two percent in the majors, according to Statcast data. He’s seeing 4.40 pitches per plate appearance, 10^th in the league, and his 273 total pitches seen put him second in the AL behind the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (276).

“His pitch selection, his strike zone discipline, is improving,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “The better counts that Anthony gets in, like everybody else, the more production they’re going to have offensively, the more power they’re going to hit for.

“Tony’s doing a really good job of laying off the breaking ball underneath. That was something that teams would go to with two strikes. You would see a lot of hooks underneath the strike zone and he’d have a tendency to chase at times, and this year he’s not, he’s laying of those. He’s really kind of zoning in on what stuff he can drive and can handle, and off to a really good start getting on base.”

The Orioles are trying for their first three-game sweep in Anaheim since 2010. They’ve defeated the Angels 5-3 and 5-4, playing some small ball along the way to manufacture runs.

According to STATS, the Orioles are the only team in the live-ball era (since 1920) to have single-digit hits and no home runs in each of their first six wins of a season. They’ve gone 0-4 when hitting a home run this year and are 6-5 when hitting none.

“We have done a lot of things well here this first couple games of the series,” Hyde said. “We’re aggressive on the bases. Besides the stolen bases, we’ve made a lot of really nice baserunning plays, taking the extra base, batter runner advancing, reading throws from the outfield.

“I do like how we’re running the bases. I think we’ve improved in that over the last couple years. We’re situational hitting fairly well. We need to continue to do that, and I think the homers will come here at some point. But until then, we need to be scrappy a little bit, and we do have some team speed, and try to utilize it.”

The starters have allowed two earned runs or fewer in 12 straight games, and the pitching staff’s 2.89 ERA is second in the AL and sixth in the majors.

This is the first time since 1992 that the Orioles have registered a sub-3.00 ERA through their first 15 games of a season.

“I’m extremely happy,” Hyde said. “For the most part, our starters have kept us in almost every single game, our bullpen guys have thrown the ball outstanding, we’re not walking many people, we’re challenging hitters. I like the makeup of our ‘pen, I like the character, and I think they’re kind of coming into their own. A lot of guys who haven’t pitched in these situations in the major leagues are doing a really good job because they’re confident guys.

“I hope their confidence continues to build from nights like the last couple nights. Our pitching staff has done a fantastic job and I couldn’t be more happy with how they started the season.”

Starter Chris Ellis was removed after 4 1/3 scoreless innings and 62 pitches in Oakland. Hyde said he’ll “play it by ear a little bit” today.

“If he can get somewhere in the four-to-five-inning range, I think that would be great,” Hyde said. “It’s really going to depend on stressful innings, how the game is going, where they are in their lineup. But if he can give us four-plus innings, that would be awesome.”