The Orioles home run hitter has made incredible baseball history with his recent series

The Baltimore Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Friday night to regain first place in the American League East. With the Yankees not playing, Baltimore now leads the division by 0.5 games.

Starting pitcher Zach Eflin beat his former team by throwing 7.0 innings, allowing no earned runs and recording seven strikeouts. Baltimore acquired him from the Rays shortly before the trade deadline.

Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins each hit home runs to pace the offense. Anthony Santander didn’t hit a home run, going 0 for 4, but he has been making incredible home run history of late.

According to @OptaSTATS on social media:

@Orioles.’ Anthony Santander has hit 25 home runs in his 60 games since the beginning of June.

He is, along with Mickey Mantle (1956 and 1961) and Chipper Jones (1999), the only switch hitter in MLB history to hit more than 25 home runs in a single season over 60 games.

That stat was released before Friday’s game, so he’s now played one more game. Overall, Santander has 34 home runs, 78 RBIs and an OPS of .841 this season. The 29-year-old will become a free agent at the end of the year and has a likely lucrative contract ahead of him, but first he wants to help the O’s win their first World Series since 1983.

The Orioles and Rays will play each other again on Saturday night, with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. ET. Corbin Burnes will throw for Baltimore, while Drew Rasmussen will get the ball for Tampa Bay. He will be in the starting lineup for the first time since early last season after undergoing internal brace surgery.

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