But he didn’t need to say anything on Sunday. The crack of his bat was all the Orioles needed to hear.
With his first multihomer game since joining the Orioles, Alonso helped them snap a three-game losing streak in a 10-5 win over the Rangers and salvage the final game of the series at Globe Life Field. Alonso blasted a pair of two-run homers in the second and fourth innings.
“Offensively, he’s a force,” manager Craig Albernaz said.
Alonso went 3-for-3 with two walks, three runs scored and four RBIs on Sunday. A performance like that did more to buck up Baltimore’s offense than any clubhouse speech he could’ve made.
“I want to be a player of substance — you can’t talk and be vocal if you’re not [producing],” Alonso said. “In order to be a leader, you’ve got to have done it — and you have to be continuously doing it.”
Alonso now has 27 career multihomer games. He reached the 25-homer mark for the seventh time in his eight-year career; he hit 16 homers in only 57 games in the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign.
“We all know the pedigree and track record that he has, and to see it night in and night out, it’s been really impressive,” Albernaz said. “He has that in him … being able to kind of change the game himself. Not to mention, what he brings to the culture and the clubhouse and [from] the leadership standpoint.”
Even before his round-trippers Sunday, Alonso set the tone. After he singled in the first inning, Alonso hustled from first to third to enable Jackson Holliday to stretch a gapper into a double. Both Alonso and Holliday, later, scored.
Colton Cowser pushed Baltimore to a 3-0 lead with a leadoff homer in the second. Three batters later, Alonso jumped on a Kumar Rocker slider for a Statcast-projected 393-foot homer. The ball clanked halfway up the left-field foul pole.
Even that pick-me-up might not have been enough for the Orioles, though, as spot starter Cade Povich faltered in a three-run third inning. Povich, who is likely headed to the Minor Leagues upon Chris Bassitt’s apparently imminent return to the rotation from the IL, did not return for the fourth.
With Povich struggling with command issues Sunday, Alonso again took the lead and all but put the game away in the fourth against Rangers reliever Jordan Montgomery. Alonso’s 404-foot, full-count shot to left-center field landed in the Orioles’ bullpen, not far from warming reliever Yaramil Hiraldo, who earned the victory with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts.
The Orioles will head to Minnesota to continue a grueling 10-game, 11-day road trip that ends with four contests in St. Petersburg against the Rays — not an easy gantlet to run considering all three opponents on the journey are ahead of the Orioles in the standings.
Sunday’s win was “absolutely” important to keep Baltimore in postseason competition, Albernaz said. The Orioles are two games behind the Rangers for the final AL Wild Card spot, and a half-game behind the Guardians and Twins.
“It’s no secret where the Wild Card standings are at, and this is a big push for us and also everyone else in the hunt,” Albernaz said. “I talked to the team about coming out of the Trade Deadline — [I said] it was a 50-game sprint, a 50-game season to finish up strong. The first two games [in Texas] were tough, but being able to salvage this win here and then take it to Minnesota and put our best foot forward there … this one was huge.”
