Gunnar Henderson highlights the reason for his hot June

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Henderson’s red-hot June continued on Thursday

Thursday was getaway day in Baltimore, as the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles met in the early afternoon for the rubber game of their three game series. Minutes after first pitch, infielder Gunnar Henderson strode to the plate in the bottom of the first with two outs and outfielder Anthony Santander on second base.

Henderson stepped into the box to face left-handed pitcher Yusei Kikuchi. Entering play on Thursday, lefties have been giving Henderson fits, as the left-handed hitter began the day just 8-for-42 against lefties, good for a batting average of just .190. He also had just a single RBI against lefties as play began Thursday.

Make that 9-for-43, and now 2 RBI against lefties.

Henderson slashed a line drive into left field, scoring Santander from second and giving the Orioles the early 1-0 lead:

It has been that kind of month for Henderson, who remained red-hot in Thursday’s 4-2 win over Toronto. After starting the season ice-cold — Henderson was hitting just .202 when June began, with seven doubles, five home runs, and 14 RBI — the young infielder has been scorching hot in June. Entering Thursday’s game against the Blue Jays, Henderson had hit at a .424 clip in the month of June, with five home runs and 11 RBI.

Henderson has even been hot against lefties in recent days. While the numbers through the start of the season were rough, consider what he has done in the past few games, including Thursday:

Tuesday night against the Blue Jays, Henderson notched a career-first, as he belted his first MLB grand slam:

That home run, in the bottom of the third inning, also helped the Orioles infielder make a little MLB history. Over a five-game stretch, Henderson recorded a dozen hits, multiple steals, a home run cycle, and helped his team win five games:

For his efforts, Henderson was named the American League Player of the Week for the week beginning June 10th. The infielder credited the support from the organization during his recent hot streak. “Feel like just the support [he got was huge], from both people back home and even on this team. They always supported me and trusted me and I’m very thankful for the Orioles staff just letting me get through it up here and have that experience under my belt for the rest of my career,” Henderson said following Tuesday night’s win.

Henderson has an idea as to what is behind his recent success, and it gets back to his “bread and butter.”

Hitting the ball the other way.

“Yeah, I feel like my bread and butter is opposite field and I have learned how to pull the ball. Just been very helpful to get back to my bread butter and if they come in I can turn on it and when they go back over the heart of the plate I can do a lot of damage,” added Henderson on Tuesday.

While he has enjoyed success pulling the ball — his recent mammoth shot towards the Warehouse and Eutaw Street is one example — the two videos included above are both instances of Henderson going the other way with pitches. Looking at his spray chart from this season, courtesy of Baseball Savant, you can see his ability to hit to all fields:

While half of his home runs have been pulled to right or right-center, the other half have gone the other way. The most notable came back in June 8th, when Henderson launched a home run down the left-field line to give the Orioles the lead in the 8th inning against the Milwaukee Brewers:

Returning to Thursday, Henderson’s first-inning single would be his only hit of the day, as he finished 1-for-4 with the single and the RBI.

But with the way he is hitting recently, including to the opposite field, it looks like his hot month will continue into July, and beyond.