Santander homers in 1st game as visitor in Orioles’ win

BALTIMORE—Anthony Santander’s first day as a visitor ended with a painful loss. Even though he was welcomed warmly by the Camden Yards crowd and hit his first home run with the Toronto Blue Jays, his old team, the Orioles, beat his new one, 5-4, on Saturday.

During spring training, he welcomed a group of Oriole writers visiting Dunedin, Florida and breezily said there was “no chance” that the Orioles’ offer was competitive with the one he accepted from the Blue Jays.

The 22,130 fans greeted Santander, applauding before his first at-bat in the first inning, and before he hit, he stepped out of the batter’s box and waved his helmet to acknowledge the cheers.

“When you feel that the fans really love you, they really like you, so it means a lot,” Santander said. “Especially that they saw me grow up here as a player, and as a person.”

Santander weakly grounded out to pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, and before the second inning, a video tribute played, and he stepped out of the third base dugout, and waved.

Santander, who hit 44 home runs, seventh most in Orioles history last season, earned a five-year, $92.5 million contract with Toronto.

So far, Santander is hitting .190 with the home run and three RBIs. He was 1-for-4.

“I’m a big fan,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I hope he has a tough series against us offensively. I’m sure the fans are going to love to see him.”

Santander hit his first home run for Toronto leading off the third and pointed to the sky and he rounded second base.

“It was awesome to hit a homer here,” Santander said. “Hopefully, we can continue hitting more.”

The home run was hit to right-center field, not left field, which was brought closer to home plate for this season.

“It looks amazing. I wish I could have had it in the years I was here. It took like seven homers away,” said the switch-hitter.

Santander got an extra free night to spend in Baltimore, where he played eight seasons after he was taken in the Rule 5 draft in December 2016. He didn’t see much.

“No, it was raining all day,” he said. “I walked around to the areas, to the hotels, to the bay. Remember good moments.”

When he got to the ballpark, he had a long walk for his first time in the visitors’ clubhouse, but had a stop to make first.

“I walked all the way to the home clubhouse, made sure I get into the kitchen to make sure I said hi to the staff,” he said. “I had a good relationship with everybody. Hopefully, we can carry on.”

Hyde will be happy after Sunday. Before the game in Dunedin, and a few days later, when Santander came to Sarasota for a Grapefruit League game, he was questioned about his former player, one whom he said was one of his favorites.

“It’s great to see him,” Santander said. “I’m very grateful to him because he gave me the opportunity to be an everyday player.”

Hyde had walked with him from the Orioles’ clubhouse on his way to the interview room for his pregame media session.

“It’s always good to have a chat with him,” Santander said.

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