Every year around the all-star break stories are told of how participating in the home run derby has negatively affected players. When Gunnar Henderson announced that he was going to participate in this year’s home run derby live during a game, I’m sure there were some fans who took it as bad news due to the ‘home run derby curse’. Whether you believe in the curse or not, Henderson appeared affected as the second half got underway.

Henderson was huge for Baltimore in the first half. He hit 28 home runs prior to the All Star break, tying his career single season home run mark. It wasn’t until his 16th game after the break that he hit his first post home run derby home run. It took eight more games for Henderson to reach the 30 homer mark.

After a slow start to the second half that saw Henderson struggle both offensively and defensively, he finally looks to be back to normal. His first home run came in the second game of the series against the Washington Nationals. Gunnar’s two run blast turned out to be all the runs the O’s needed as Dean Kremer and the bullpen held the Nats to just one run and the Orioles won 4-1.

Gunnar Henderson’s hot streak helped keep the Orioles alive this week

The Gunn show continued the next night as Henderson’s second two run blast in as many days, gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead against the Boston Red Sox. They would go on to win 5-1 behind Zach Eflin’s continued excellence as an Oriole. His sixth inning shot in game three of the series evened the score at one, but that was all the Orioles could muster for Cade Povich, who had his best career start.

Henderson’s two run homer in game four of the series gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead and proved to be the difference for the third time this week as the O’s held on to win 4-2. Henderson went 6-24 with four home runs and eight RBI’s for the week, while playing stellar defense. The Orioles are going to need their star shortstop as the make a dash for the finish line.

Several Orioles pitchers had a week worth mentioning this week. Eflin won his fourth straight start with his fourth straight quality outing for the O’s. Seranthony Dominguez was 2-2 in save chances and came up huge on Sunday by stranding the bases loaded in the eighth inning on his way to a four-out save. Albert Suarez continued his brilliance Sunday earning a win and extending his scoreless innings streak to 17.2, but Henderson’s three game-winning home runs were enough to earn him his third player of the week honors.