Orioles’ offense carries them to 3rd straight win as Henderson hits 100th homer in 7-3 win over Padres

BALTIMORE–What happened? This Orioles season has been uneven. Every time the season seems headed in one direction, it veers and turns the opposite way.

After winning 10 of 14 and pulling within two games of .500 last week, the Orioles dropped four in a row only to win their last three straight.

The third was a 7-3 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night before 25,458 at Oriole Park. The Orioles (34-37) haven’t been at .500 since April 30^th, but they’ve been able to stay in the wild-card conversation.

“I think as a whole, we just do a good job of kind of flushing whatever happened the day before or maybe the past few days leading up to it,” starting pitcher Shane Baz said. “Just turning the page the next day, win or lose, and not looking too far into stuff or getting caught up with our record and standings and stuff like that. I think we just do a great job of showing up and playing and playing our butts off every day.”

The Orioles led, 6-2, after two innings, scoring three runs in both the first and second. Adley Rutschman’s sacrifice fly and Samuel Basallo’s two-run home run, his 10^th, provided the first-inning runs. Jackson Holliday’s sacrifice fly and Pete Alonso’s two-run single in the second put the Orioles ahead by four.

Gavin Sheets’ double in the first scored Fernando Tatis Jr., who reached on an error by third baseman Coby Mayo. Tatis’ single in the second brought home Ty France.

Gunnar Henderson’s 14^th home run, the 100^th of his career with two outs in the fourth, put the Orioles ahead, 7-2.

“Obviously it’s cool to get to that number,” Henderson said. “Hopefully, a lot more coming. But, yeah, it’s definitely a cool little milestone to hit in this game because it’s a super hard game, but being able to hit those little milestones and kind of cherish those is pretty cool.”

All seven runs were charged to San Diego starter Griffin Canning (0-5).

Baz (4-6) made it through five innings. He allowed three runs, one unearned, on six hits.

Gavin Sheets’ RBI single scored Manny Machado, who doubled. Baz threw 103 pitches, the last was a double-play ball by Samad Taylor to end the fifth.

Machado, who entered the game hitting a shockingly low .172, had two doubles.

Anthony Nunez, Keegan Akin, Yennier Cano  and Andrew Kitttredge combined for four scoreless, one-hit innings. Cano struck out the side in the eighth.

How big an achievement is 100 home runs? Henderson is the fourth-fastest Oriole to hit 100 home runs. Henderson did it in his 567^th game. Anthony Santander (526), Trey Mancini (531) and Boog Powell (564) are the others.

He is the fifth Oriole to hit 100 at age 24 or younger, joining Machado, Powell, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr.

He hit his 99^th on May 27^th.

“I had an idea, but I never obviously like looked it up … I’m at 99. But I had a pretty good idea. But, yeah, never really fully guaranteed that myself that I knew I was at 99.”

Henderson carried a rug he’d been gifted for his milestone home run.

“A guy in Baltimore makes these custom rugs, and he actually made me one, I think, two years ago, and he made this for the team,” he said. “And funny enough, he caught the 100 home run ball. I think his girlfriend did. So it was kind of a full-circle moment being able to run into him, and then he obviously had a rug for the team. So that was pretty cool for him to catch it.

“It was super awesome that him and his girlfriend were gracious enough to give me that ball back.”

At 21, Basallo could become a young 100 home run hitter.

“It’s not a competition, but I mean, I want to get there fast,” Basallo said.

How did Baz pitch? “It was a grindy outing for Shane,” manager Craig Alberrnaz said. “I think we all saw that and honestly, for him to get through five was impressive. And he didn’t have his best command by any stretch, but it just shows how good his stuff is and when he does have his command, just the ability just to keep the lead and get through five was impressive.

“And, yeah, definitely wasn’t his best outing but, no, he did everything he could to get the win for us and sometimes when you’re on the mound, you don’t have your best stuff, your best command, that’s all you have to do is just grind and give the boys a chance to win.”

Baz knew that even though he had four quality starts in his last five starts this wasn’t his best effort.

“Yeah, 100 percent. [Rutschman] did a great job just keeping me in there,” Baz said. “Our offense was electric. The defense was electric. They carried us through this game. Bullpen was awesome. Yeah, anytime that I can hold on like that as long as I can when I probably have some of the worst stuff of the year, maybe command of the year, just it’s huge.”

What does it mean? The Orioles’ offense has hit 40 home runs since May 16^th, the most in baseball.

What’s the stat of the day? 31. Gunnar Henderson is the 31^st Oriole to hit 100 home runs.

What’s the word?  “I always like to hold myself to high standards, but it’s hard to say you’re going to go up to the big leagues and hit a hundred homers.”-Henderson on hitting 100 home runs

What’s going on in the minor leagues? Trace Bright gave up six runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings in Triple-A Norfolk’s 10-2 loss to Memphis.

Jauron Watts-Brown allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits in three innings in Double-A Chesapeake’s 10-8 loss to Altoona. Watts-Brown is 0-5 with an 8.78 ERA.

Douglas Hodo homered twice.

Ike Irish hit a three-run home run In High-A Frederick’s 13-4 loss to Brooklyn.

Miguel Rodríguez drove in four runs and Jose Perez hit a two-run home run as Single-A Delmarva beat Columbia 9-6.

What’s next? Trey Gibson (1-1, 4.24) will start against Randy Vásquez (5-4, 3.63) on Saturday at 4:05 p.m.

Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com