{"id":750119,"date":"2026-07-12T22:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/750119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:36:17","slug":"orioles-blaze-alexander-suffers-fractured-hand-on-hbp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/750119\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles’ Blaze Alexander Suffers Fractured Hand On HBP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orioles\u2019 8-2 win over the Royals today came at a painful cost for Blaze Alexander<\/a>, as the third baseman left the game due to a non-displaced fracture in his left hand.\u00a0 The injury came when Lucas Erceg<\/a> hit Alexander with a pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and both benches emptied after Alexander had some choice words for Erceg after the at-bat.<\/p>\n

O\u2019s manager Craig Albernaz shared the diagnosis about Alexander\u2019s status in his postgame comments to media (including MASNsports), and Alexander will get more testing during the All-Star break to determine the severity of the fracture and a potential recovery timeline.\u00a0 Such injuries usually lead to at minimum a month on the injured list, and Alexander\u2019s season could end up being over if surgery is required.<\/p>\n

The brutal news spoiled a banner day for Alexander, who had scored two runs and gone 2-for-2 with a walk in the three plate appearances prior to the HBP.\u00a0 Alexander is now hitting .312\/.368\/.439 with four home runs over 246 PA, good for an impressive 123 wRC+.<\/p>\n

A .396 BABIP has played a huge role in Alexander\u2019s offensive production, as he batted only .237\/.322\/.366 in 451 career PA for the Diamondbacks prior to the February trade that brought the utilityman to Baltimore.\u00a0 Not much has gone right for the Orioles in the first half, yet Alexander has been a bright spot.<\/p>\n

Beyond his unexpected offense, Alexander\u2019s defensive versatility has helped the O\u2019s fill holes all over the diamond.\u00a0 He has gotten a good chunk of action at second base, shortstop, and all three outfield spots, though Alexander has mostly played third base, and had been settled into semi-regular duty at the hot corner as the Orioles looked to keep his bat in the lineup.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s win over Kansas City improved Baltimore\u2019s record to 46-51, and the O\u2019s head into the break with the momentum of a four-game winning streak.\u00a0 Like pretty much the entire American League, the Orioles remain in the playoff picture, as they\u2019re only two games out of a wild card spot.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if the O\u2019s can keep rolling and start to look like more full-fledged contenders as the deadline approaches, though their chances will take a hit without Alexander\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

If the Orioles are buyers, they might now look to obtain another utilityman, should Alexander indeed be facing a more long-term absence.\u00a0 Coby Mayo<\/a> will probably take the bulk of third base time for now, as the former top prospect is still trying to establish himself in his third MLB season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles\u2019 8-2 win over the Royals today came at a painful cost for Blaze Alexander, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,30643,4],"class_list":["post-750119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-blaze-alexander","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116909400664937182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}