Fastball

Baltimore Orioles Slugger Joins Rare Baseball History with Monday Blast

The Baltimore Orioles lost on Monday night but slugger Anthony Santander made some history not seen in nearly the last 20 years.

Brady Farkas

Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Anthony Santander (25) scores during the sixth inning on a double by outfielder Cedric Mullins (not shown) against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Sept 2.
Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Anthony Santander (25) scores during the sixth inning on a double by outfielder Cedric Mullins (not shown) against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Sept 2. / Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles lost to the Boston Red Sox 12-3 on Monday night at Fenway Park. With the loss, Baltimore is 82-63 and 1.5 games back in the American League East. For the Red Sox, they are now 73-71 and have pushed to 3.0 back of the third and final wild card spot. They are tied with the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners in that position.

Despite the loss, Monday was still a great individual day for Orioles' slugger Anthony Santander. The pending free agent went 2-for-4 with a home run, which was his 40th of the season.

According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, the blast accomplished a rare feat in baseball history.

Switch-hitters with 40-HR seasons:

2024 Anthony Santander
2006 Carlos Beltrán
2006, ‘02 Lance Berkman
2005 Mark Teixeira
1999 Chipper Jones
1996 Todd Hundley
1996 Ken Caminiti
1961, ‘60, ‘58, ‘56 Mickey Mantle

It's just hard to have that kind of power from both sides of the plate, but Santander does. As a result of his 40 homer, 94 RBI campaign (thus far), Santander is setting himself up for a massive payday this upcoming offseason.

The 29-year-old already has a career-high in homers and is one RBI away from tying his career-high there.

The Orioles and Red Sox will play again on Tuesday night with first pitch coming at 7:10 p.m. ET. Veteran right-hander Albert Suarez will pitch for Baltimore while Kutter Crawford goes for Boston.

Suarez is 7-5 with a 3.49 ERA, serving in a variety of roles. Crawford is 8-13 with a 4.08 on the season.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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