Orioles' Manny Machado named AL Player of the Month for August

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado added his second career American League Player of the Month award for August, a superlative stretch during which he has hit three grand slams and helped turn around his season.

Machado hit .341/.348/.690 over the course of the month, with 12 home runs and 35 RBIs, as the Orioles went 17-12 and Machado's OPS climbed over .700 points. His 12 home runs were tied for most in the American League with the Toronto Blue Jays' Josh Donaldson and New York Yankees' Gary Sanchez, and his 35 RBIs were tops in the AL.

The month is part of Machado's second-half revival, as he entered August batting .250 with a .761 OPS and ended it batting .269 with an .822 OPS. Including a four-hit game Friday, Machado is up to .272/.324/.500, giving him his highest batting average since the first week in the season.

Machado became the 10th player in major league history, and first with the Orioles, to hit three grand slams in a month. After doing so Aug. 8 and Aug. 14, Machado capped a three-homer night with a game-winning grand slam Aug. 18 against the Los Angeles Angels.

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Orioles third baseman Manny Machado fields a ground ball with his bare hand before throwing the runner out in the bottom of the second inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Oct. 1, 2017, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Joseph Garnett Jr. / Getty Images)

With 26 games remaining, Machado is tied for tops on the team with Jonathan Schoop at 30 home runs and is second on the club in RBIs behind Schoop, who has 88.

Machado's August coincided with the team's best offensive month, as the Orioles averaged a league-high 6.03 runs per game while leading baseball with 77 home runs — the most any team has ever hit in the month of August — and a collective OPS of .882.

He won his first monthly award in April 2016.

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