Anthony Santander’s grand slam ignites Orioles in win over Astros

When the Orioles need a lift, Anthony Santander knows how to answer the call.

In a game when the Orioles lost Cedric Mullins to injury, fell behind early and mustered only three hits against the opposing starter, Santander breathed life into his frustrated ballclub and the packed Camden Yards crowd of 39,578 with a dramatic go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning Friday night to help Baltimore beat the Houston Astros, 7-5.

“I haven’t seen our team react like that in a long time,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It was just a big exhale it seemed like in our dugout. It really was so exciting and the stadium, that was as loud as it’s been this year I think. It was a great atmosphere and Santander comes through once again at a time when we really have been scuffling.

“We caught a couple breaks tonight. We haven’t been catching many breaks, either. Just a massive, massive hit for us.”

Amid the Orioles’ ongoing two-month stretch of offensive struggles, Santander has remained a constant contributor in the middle of their lineup. The 29-year-old veteran outfielder has put together the best season of his life in 2024, pushing his career-high home run total to 38 with the 403-foot blast. His 86 RBIs this season lead the team by a wide margin.

With his club trailing 5-2 in the eighth, Santander stepped to the plate with the bases loaded — the first real opportunity the Orioles (75-55) had all night to put up a crooked number on the scoreboard. Colton Cowser and Adley Rutschman led off the frame with back-to-back singles and Gunnar Henderson reached first on a fielder’s choice. Astros set-up man Bryan Abreu tried to catch Cowser in a rundown on a ground ball to the mound that Abreu snagged between his legs, but Cowser got back to the bag in time and the call was upheld on replay review.

Santander then got ahead 2-0 and took a fastball up in the zone for a strike before crushing another four-seamer even higher to right-center field, willing the ball over the leaping Ben Gamel for his second grand slam of the season. Ramón Urías then tacked on another run with an RBI triple before Seranthony Domínguez locked down the save to finish off a stunning Orioles victory and end Houston’s nine-game winning streak on the road.

“We’ve been struggling a little bit the last couple weeks, and that’s a big key right there,” Santander said. “That is a reminder of who we are as a team. We always stay focused the whole game, we compete for 27 outs. Cowser and Adley did a really good job right there getting on base in the inning, they set it up. That’s a great win right there.”

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Mullins, who entered the game with a .754 OPS since the start of July, made a spectacular running catch in center field early and drew a walk in his first plate appearance. He then struck out his next at-bat and didn’t return to the field for the top of the fifth inning, replaced in the lineup by Austin Slater. The Orioles later announced he was removed with left quad tightness, yet another injury blow for a club that already has 11 players on the injured list.

Starter Cade Povich took the mound coming off the best performance of his young career, but the 24-year-old was unable to replicate his success against Houston. The rookie left-hander looked poised early, recording a five-pitch first inning and striking out both Jeremy Peña and Jake Meyers to open the second. He unraveled in the third, however, allowing four runs on five hits, including a two-run home run by Jose Altuve and an RBI double off the bat of Peña.

“Still a lot of positives from what I’ve been working on going into it,” Povich said. “A couple pitches, I think, that just kind of went the other way and then a couple of it was just on the side of being in the zone ball, but not necessarily executing it the way I might have wanted to.”

The Orioles’ offense, which was shut out by the Astros in a 6-0 loss Thursday, got an early break in the second when Peña threw away a double-play opportunity that allowed an unearned run to cross the plate. But the scuffling lineup was only able to tack on a solo home run by Cowser in the third before it broke out in the eighth. With the shot to right field, Cowser broke a three-way tie to take sole possession of the MLB rookie lead with 19 home runs.

Astros starter Hunter Brown shut Baltimore down after that, completing six innings for the 15th time in his past 17 outings. Povich, who allowed five runs on eight hits, two walks and three strikeouts, went back out for the sixth but gave up a leadoff home run to Peña and allowed two more batters to reach before manager Brandon Hyde pulled him for reliever Burch Smith.

The bullpen managed to pitch three scoreless innings — including an adventure of an eighth for ex-closer Craig Kimbrel — to keep the Orioles within striking distance long enough for Santander’s homer to put them back ahead.

“Really happy with our bullpen tonight,” Hyde said. “Those are the innings that we’ve struggled in, honestly, to keep the score. That’s what we were really good at the last couple of years, keeping the score there for us to have the ability to come back, and Burch did that, and Craig got through his inning to allow us to get that rally there and win the game.”

Baltimore will look to make it two in a row against Houston on Saturday when Albert Suárez gets the start opposite the Astros’ Framber Valdez.