O's have 60 homers in June as final day of the month is here

The Orioles keep mashing home runs. After hitting two more in Saturday's 6-5 victory over Teas, they have hit 14 homers in their past five games, 29 in the last 13 games with a team OPS of .901 in that span and 60 homers in 28 games this month.

They have homered in 27 of 28 games this month and as of pregame Saturday led the majors with a team slugging percentage of .523 in June. They were second to the Mets in team OPS this month at .857 and were second to the Mets in runs per game in June at 5.75 (with the Mets at 6.43).

Their most homer-happy player this month is Anthony Santander who hit another homer last night. He has 13 in June where his batting line is .274/.325/.670/.995.

Santander said the powerful O’s lineup is helping each hitter in that lineup one through nine.

“It’s great having a deep lineup. It’s awesome,” he said this week. “Over 162 games you can’t have everyone hitting every game. Sometimes we see the bottom of our order carrying it.”

And many nights in June he has been the one carrying it. He has hit eight homers in his last 14 games.

“It feels great,” he said of his recent hot hitting. “Especially to have the opportunity to help the team win games. It’s amazing when your body is working good, you are feeling good at the plate, you’re seeing the ball good, you’re on time with the fastball and able to recognize other pitches. Feels amazing.”

Santander was asked if he knew when a hot streak might be coming. Can he sense it is coming?

“It’s a long season and there are a lot of ups and downs. You have to know your body and you can anticipate when your body is feeling good and you show up to the field and everything is great,” he said.

We have seen the switch hitter drill some high fastballs out of ballparks this month. Earlier in the year he wasn’t getting to the high fastballs as well as he is now.

“Working with the hitting coaches and took BP with high velocity and also with the machine with foam balls to work on getting on top of the ball. That has helped me hitting the fastball recently," Santander said.

Chance for a sweep today: The Orioles beat the Rangers last night as they have pulled out back-to-back one-run wins this series. The Orioles were swept in the American League Division Series three straight last year and have won three in a row in this series and four in a row overall.

Texas has lost six in a row and nine in a row on the road. Baltimore is 16-6 versus Texas in the regular season since 2021.

They improved to 53-30 overall and opened a one-game lead over the  Yankees, who lost 9-3 to the Blue Jays.

The Yankees are 3-10 in the last 13 games, allowing 101 runs in that span with a -39 run differential and 7.47 ERA in the 13 games.

During their four-game win streak, the Orioles have outscored their opponents 23-10. Their starting pitchers in this span have an ERA of 1.80 the last four games with no walks and 14 strikeouts over 25 innings. In fact, O's starting pitchers have gone five straight games and 29 innings without issuing a walk.

The Orioles are 17-11 in June. This is now the team's ninth consecutive winning month (min. 10 games played) since the start of 2023, the longest streak by the O's since May 1982 through September 1983 (11), per the Elias Sports Bureau. The current stretch is the longest active streak in the majors.

Tonight ends a run of 30 games over the last 31 days, since May 31, for the Orioles. They have gone 18-11 (.621) during the stretch, going 6-2-1 in the nine series.

Craig Kimbrel got saves the last two nights. Over his past 

The Orioles have two four-game sweeps this year, both on the road at Chicago against the White Sox and at St. Petersburg, Fla. versus Tampa Bay. They will have one at home if get a win tonight against Texas.