After Gunnar Henderson’s bat came to life on Friday night, including a textbook swing on his 100th homer, manager Craig Albernaz said, “Gunnar is about to have some fun now.”
It was the highlight of the Orioles’ third straight win. However, a promising start to a series against the San Diego Padres turned into another lost weekend for the Orioles.
It ended on a day when the Orioles were celebrating author Jeff Kinney’s children’s book series “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The irony wasn’t lost.
The Orioles’ sloppiness in the top of the ninth on Sunday brought manager Craig Albernaz out of the dugout. The first-year manager maintained an even keel on Saturday when Henderson was hit by a pitch on the hip in the ninth in a retaliatory move, but he couldn’t hide his frustration when Henderson and Jackson Holliday booted infield grounders, and Henderson added a throwing error.
It moved him to call a mound meeting, and he acknowledged that he was very upset in a game the Orioles were trailing 4-2 and facing Mason Miller, the best closer in baseball. The errors probably didn’t matter in the 5-2 outcome, but it was another example of a team struggling to play clean, heads-up baseball deep into June.
Henderson had two hits on Sunday, and was the only Oriole to get a hit with a runner in scoring position.
On Saturday, the Padres targeted Henderson for payback after Oriole starter Trey Gibson hit Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts in the head (striking the left ear flap of the helmet) with a pitch in the fifth inning, with Bogaerts leaving the game in the sixth.
In the seventh, Henderson dodged two pitches from Bradgley Rodriguez to avoid being hit. In the ninth, he was hit on the right hip, leading to ejections of pitcher Ron Marinaccio and manager Craig Stammen.
The Padres might have been targeting Henderson because their shortstop had been taken out of the game, but I think it symbolized that the Padres were determined to make their point against the Orioles’ best player, even though he hasn’t been playing that way.
Last Tuesday, when the up-and-down Orioles dropped their fourth game in a row, Henderson was hitless in five at-bats. He came up with runners on base three times and none scored. In the ninth, Henderson batted with the bases loaded and one out with the score tied, 4-4. He swung at the first pitch and hit a one-hop grounder to third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who threw home for a forceout. In 31 at-bats in June, he hadn’t driven in a run.
The Orioles lost in 10, 6-5 to Seattle, and Albernaz was asked what was going on with Henderson.
“This game is really hard, and Gunnar is working through a lot,” Albernaz said. “And he’s one of those players where, he’s such a dynamic impact player where, it’s gonna click for him. He’s had good at-bats and just hasn’t gotten the results that he wanted. And he’s a main piece in what we do. And I know everyone’s enamored with results, and rightfully so, and so is Gunnar, but he will get those results.”
On Sunday, infield coach Miguel Cairo was at Henderson’s locker after the game, talking about the ninth-inning errors that included the ill-advised throw to first after Holliday’s miss caromed to him.
On Friday night, he made a hard game look easy, On Saturday, he was caught in the middle of San Diego’s effort to get even for Bogaerts’ beaning. On Sunday he represented a microcosm of this uneven season — two hits and two errors.
Friday night’s milestone was no longer on his mind.
“Obviously it’s cool to get to that number,” Henderson said on Friday. “Hopefully, a lot more coming. But, yeah, it’s definitely a cool little milestone to hit in this game because it’s a super hard game.”
Henderson demonstrated just how hard the game can be this weekend. He also showed that he can be a catalyst for a team that needs its best player to perform that way as the Orioles head west for nine games that could determine the direction of their season.