Markakis finally breaks out

To say Nick Markakis had been having a rough go of it would be an understatement.

The O’s right fielder was swinging a wet noodle at the plate for the better part of two months, with his last home run coming way back on June 24, and his last double on July 19. For the month of August, Nick’s slash line sits at .224/.299/.271, and his slugging percentage of .368 for the season is easily the lowest of his career.

His struggles had O’s fans murmuring that he should be benched, and offering a wide variety of possible reasons for his rapid decline of power. The reasons I saw listed by various folks ranged from an injury, to a Conor-Jackson-like illness, to “getting clean,” to not spending enough time in the weight room in the offseason.

While I have no idea what’s been going on with him lately, all I know is that I miss “Nick the Stick Markickass, Professional Hitter.”

When I was in San Francisco to watch the Birds a few weeks ago, I got to watch them taking batting practice – something I rarely get to see at OPACY. My friends and I were standing on the walkway between the field and McCovey Cove at AT&T Park, with the hopes that Chris Davis would give us a “splash hit” show when it was his turn to take some swings.

While Davis, in typical Crush fashion, had little interest in trying to pull the ball, there was one O’s player who was smacking line drive after line drive toward the right field seats. This guy hit the walkway a few times, even bouncing a ball or two into the Cove. We were straining our eyes and racking our brains trying to figure out who this hitter was – Henry Urrutia? Brian Roberts? Ryan Flaherty?

Finally it dawned on one of us that it was Nick Markakis putting on this BP show – we hadn’t even considered him. That’s how far he’d fallen with his summer power drought. Still, it was good to see that he did at least still have the ability to drive the ball – but when would it translate to a game?

The answer, as we saw yesterday, was “not for another two weeks.” In the Birds’ 10-3 victory over Oakland on Sunday, Nick finally broke out, and ended both of his dubious streaks.

His double to right-center in the bottom of the third inning was his first extra-base hit in 31 games. His home run to right in the bottom of the eighth was his first dinger in 51 contests.

After the game, Nick (who is off-limits for pies in the face), gave his thoughts:

“It’s not a good month to be [going through a slump],” Nick said, referring to the August pennant race. “I’m just looking to be comfortable up there and hit the ball hard.”

While August isn’t the best month to slump, it beats September. Hopefully Markakis can get on track after his big Sunday and be the Nick of old for the final month. That would go a long way to helping the Birds make their final push for another playoff berth.