SAN DIEGO — The Orioles go into the final day of June with a chance to make claim to having one of the most prolific home-run hitting months in baseball history as they open a four-game series against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field on Thursday night.
If they homer Thursday, the Orioles will break the record for home runs hit in the month of June, a mark they currently share with the 1996 Oakland Athletics, who also hit 55 homers in June.
Three homers on Thursday would tie the record for most homers hit in any month, an achievement now held by the 1987 Orioles in May and the 1999 Seattle Mariners, also in May. And hitting three homers in a game is far from an out-of-reach task for this Orioles lineup. They've hit at least three homers nine times this month and 18 times in 77 games this season.
"We still have another day in June according to my calculations, right?" said Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, who has 11 of his 16 homers this month. "So, [we] might be able to break a major league record for home runs, but I look at it as just passing the baton. Just having good at-bats. There's been good times and bad times, but over the last 20-30 games we've all clicked together. Had some good at-bats. I think that's No. 1."
Setting this record is no precursor to success on the field. The 1996 Athletics were a third-place team with a 78-84 record and neither the 1987 Orioles nor the 1999 Mariners made the postseason. But the Orioles have used their power surge to rise to the top of the American League East. They'll wake up in Seattle on Thursday with a 47-30 record – tied for the second-best mark in the AL – and a 5½-game lead over the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in the division.
So players say there's not too much talk about having one of the best power-hitting months on record.
"Some guys are aware, some aren't," said outfielder Mark Trumbo, whose two-run blast in Thursday's 12-6 win over the San Diego Padres was the Orioles' 55th homer in 27 games this month. "It's obviously, it's a special thing, but it's not something that anyone is going to gloat about or spend too much time thinking about. It just goes to show that we are on a nice little run."
Dating to 2012, when the Orioles' resurgence began after 14 straight losing seasons, their offense has leaned on the long ball. If their major league-leading 124 homers holds, the Orioles will be among the top three homer-hitting teams in each of the past five seasons. But hitting all those homers has come with long lapses of offensive ineptitude when they've been unable to hit home runs.
But this month, the home runs have been accompanied by tremendous run-production numbers. Not only are the power numbers going up but so are players' batting averages and on-base numbers. They are hitting more homers but also drawing more walks and capitalizing more situationally.
"They've really taken on this pass-the-baton [mentality]," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It's not selfish. It's that feeling that the weight of expectations is not just on me. … Power is a thing that makes guys stay out of the strike zone."
The Orioles not only lead the majors in homers this month, they also lead in batting average (.303), on-base percentage (.360) and slugging percentage (.539). So not only are the Orioles hitting homers, they have come into their own as an offense.
"We're getting hits," Jones said. "That's the thing. We're just trying to square the ball up and not just try to hit home runs. If you look at a lot of home runs we've hit, [they] have been line drives. And if you look at a lot of the hits we've had, they've been line drives, so just trying to hit the ball hard and the guys we've got, we've got some boys 6-3, 230 and above. We've probably got five or six of them guys, so when you hit line drives, they have a tendency to get up a little more trajectory and get out of the park."
The Orioles' 182 runs this month ties them with last month's Red Sox for the most scored in any month in seven years, going back to when the Los Angeles Angels scored 185 runs in July 2009.
"It's a product of everybody feeding off each other," Showalter said.
It is no coincidence that Jones, second baseman Jonathan Schoop and third baseman Manny Machado have paced the Orioles' June boom. The trio have combined for 21 – or 38 percent – of the Orioles' homers this month, but it's more than that. Jones is hitting .316 this month, Schoop is batting .365 in June and despite missing four games serving a suspension, Machado is also hitting .347 this month.
And now, with Jones hitting leadoff and Schoop moving into the No. 2 spot, those three players sit atop the Orioles batting order to form a dangerous table-setting trio for middle-of-the order bats Chris Davis (19 homers) and Trumbo (23 homers). Those five players have combined to hit 89 homers this season, including 38 this month.
"You look right there, there are five guys who are really aggressive and you've got to throw strikes right now," Jones said. "Right now, we're laying off the bad pitches and forcing the pitchers to throw them over the plate. And right now we're not missing it. So, if we can just continue to do that, or if we can get at least three of the four or three of the five doing that, we'll be in good shape."
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