The regular season is over and postseason baseball is coming back to Baltimore. The Birds struggled through the month of September but finished on a high note, winning five of their last six games including a sweep of the Twins in Minnesota. Getting hot and making a run through the playoffs would go a long way in helping everyone forget the recent struggles.
Speaking of getting hot, Ryan O’Hearn busted out of his power slump over the season’s final week. O’Hearn only hit one home run in the month of August and had not homered in September. With only three games remaining in the season, O’Hearn had been stuck at 13 home runs, one shy of tying his career best, for over five weeks.
Finally on September 27, O’Hearn blasted a Pablo Lopez sweeper 399 feet into the right field seats. The homer gave the O’s an early 2-0 lead in the first game of the series and they never looked back.
Ryan O’Hearn showed up at the plate and earned the regular season’s final Player of the Week
In the second game of the series, O’Hearn repeated his feat by hitting another two run homer to give the Birds a 2-0 lead, this time in the first inning. This was O’Hearn’s 15th long ball of the season setting a new single season career high as the Orioles routed the Twins 9-2. O’Hearn could be seen smiling as he rounded the bases after this shot.
The home runs were far from the only production O’Hearn had this week. The power may not have returned until he was in Minnesota but the batting eye was there in New York. O’Hearn was 3-7 with a double and an RBI in the Orioles’ two wins against the Yankees while striking out only once in the series. He had been making good contact earlier in the month and finally the hits began to drop in.
For the week, O’Hearn went 8-20 with four runs scored, a double, two homers, and five RBI’s. The hot streak is coming at the best possible time for O’Hearn and the Orioles as the Birds are set to host O’Hearn’s former team in the Wild Card round.
The Birds acquired O’Hearn from the Royals prior to the 2023 season in exchange for cash considerations, a move that has haunted Kansas City as they have struggled to get consistent production from the first base position ever since. O’Hearn will be looking to do damage and bounce his former team from the playoffs in the ultimate revenge move.