Henderson’s grand slam the big hit in Orioles’ 5th straight win, 11-6 over Blue Jays

BALTIMORE—The Orioles began a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night, and they continued their offensive surge.

After scoring 11 runs on Sunday, they again scored 11 for their fifth straight win and the fourth consecutive against the Blue Jays this season in an 11-6 win before an announced crowd of 16,018 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles (42-24) reached 18 games over .500 for the first time since July 25^th, 2016, and they’re now six games ahead of Toronto (37-31). They swept the Blue Jays in three games in Toronto last month.

Gunnar Henderson, who was named the American League Player of the Week on Monday, hit his first career grand slam to key a six-run third inning,

“That was my first grand slam ever throughout my whole baseball career,” Henderson said. “That was pretty cool.”

Henderson had his fourth straight multi-hit game and his second consecutive three-hit game. He’s 13-for-24 (.542) in his last six games and his average is up to .246.

“I feel like I’m very aware of what I want to do,” Henderson said. “When I get up to the box and just going up there and executing my plan, take a pitch if I need to if it’s not where I want it, and then I’ll just really trust in the plan that I go up there with.”

The Orioles set a season high with 17 hits and equaled their season high in runs. Their four home runs were also a season high.

Adam Frazier hit his eighth home run, Ryan O’Hearn his fifth, both two-run shots, and Aaron Hicks hit his third.

Frazier is just two home runs short of his career high, 10, set in 2018 and 2019.

“I wasn’t expecting eight at the beginning of June,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Nice little bonus. He’s playing really good baseball.”

O’Hearn played first base in place of Ryan Mountcastle, who missed last weekend’s series with Kansas City and was placed on the 10-day injured list with vertigo, retroactive to Saturday just before the game.

“[Monday] he worked out and felt a lot better,” Hyde said. “Today, following doing some physical activity, he just didn’t feel very good, so we decided to put him on the IL.”

Catcher Mark Koloszvary’s contract was purchased, and he caught the ninth inning.

Dean Kremer (7-3) allowed two runs on six hits in six innings. It was his second consecutive start without a walk and he had a hot Henderson on his side.

“He’s a special talent,” Kremer said. “The guy hits the ball hard. He hits the ball far. He does it all.”

Current Orioles were just 4-for-20 against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt (7-5) entering the game. Bassitt allowed eight runs on 11 hits in three innings.

Notes: Henderson’s grand slam was the first by an Orioles rookie since Mountcastle’s on May 22^nd, 2021. He’s the first Oriole to homer in three consecutive games since Cedric Mullins on September 5^th-7^th, 2021. … Kyle Bradish (2-2, 4.25) will face José Berrios (6-4, 3.81) on Wednesday night. … Hicks has reached base in each of his 11 games since joining the Orioles, his longest on-base streak since September 5^th-18^th, 2020.

Minor league update: Bruce Zimmermann threw a six-hit shutout in Triple-A Norfolk’s 3-0 win over Worcester. Zimmermann (3-3) struck out nine and walked one, throwing 94 pitches. It was the Tides’ first nine-inning complete-game shutout since Zach Clark did it on August 31^st, 2012.

Shortstop Joey Ortiz hit his fifth home run.

Third baseman Coby Mayo drove in three runs, centerfielder Zach Watson and rightfielder Billy Cook both drove in two in Double-A Bowie’s 7-5 win over Richmond.

Cook hit his fifth home run.

Rightfielder Dylan Beavers drove in four runs and hit his fourth home run as High-A Aberdeen beat Brooklyn, 8-7.

Call for questions: I’ll be answering Orioles questions later this week. Please send them to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com