Wake Up With Manny Machado's Two-Run Homer And Grand Slam
If you’re an Orioles fan, I’m sure your boy RDT is going to have more on this later. But I just had to weigh in on what Manny Machado’s been doing this season. It sucks; we’ve got team-specific writers for all the fun teams this year — O’s, Nats, Cubs, Mets, White Sox, so I can never blog these stories.
Anyway, Machado went off for two homers — one of which was a grand slam — and drove in six runs on Sunday to put him in a five-way tie for second most homers in the American League. His .350 batting average trails only Nick Castellanos of the Tigers, who is pulling a ridiculous season out of his ass thus far. Castellanos is hitting .375 this year, and came into 2016 as a career .257 hitter. Go figure. But Machado’s .403 on-based percentage is good for third in the league, and his 1.094 OPS is tops in the AL, second to only Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz for the best mark in all of baseball.
By the way, Machado didn’t hit his ninth home run of 2015 until June 6. By that point, too, he only had 11 doubles. He’s already at 15 this year. I picked the Orioles to finish last in the American League East this past March, because their rotation is garbage. The thing is, their rotation is garbage (26th fewest innings pitched in the majors), but they’re still winning games in spite of that, due to how relentless their lineup is. I still think their starting pitching will be their downfall, but Machado will be a big reason why they at least keep their head above water.