Orioles power past Blue Jays with early offensive explosion to secure 5th straight win

Coming off the best week of his big league career, rookie Gunnar Henderson came up with the perfect encore.

It was the fifth straight win for the surprising Orioles, who climbed 18 games over .500 (42-24) for the first time since 2016, when they last reached the playoffs. Tampa Bay (48-21), which leads second-place Baltimore in the AL East, is the only team in the majors with a better record.

Henderson hit .526 last week with three homers and six RBIs in five games. After a day off Monday, the 21-year-old went 3-for-5, including a bases-loaded drive off Chris Bassitt that capped a six-run third inning.

"That was my first grand slam ever, throughout my whole baseball career, so that was pretty cool," Henderson said.

He couldn't deny that he was thinking about accomplishing the feat when he stepped to the plate.

"Kind of passively a little bit, but at the same time I was trying to get the job done and push across a few runs," Henderson said. "I was able to get it up in the air and push across a little more."

"I just feel like I'm very aware of what I want to do when I get in the box," he said. "I'm just going up there and executing my plan."

The Orioles banged out a season-high 17 hits, including two-run homers by Adam Frazier and Ryan O'Hearn, along with a solo shot by Aaron Hicks. Three of those drives came off Bassitt (7-5), who allowed eight runs and 11 hits in three innings.

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"It was an uncharacteristic outing from Chris," manager John Schneider said. "He had some pitches in the middle of the plate, couldn't get the ball inside to lefties. They took advantage."

Frazier's second-inning home run put Baltimore up 2-1. O'Hearn connected in the third before Henderson drove a 1-0 pitch over the centre-field wall and into the Baltimore bullpen. The shot travelled an estimated 387 feet, impressive except when compared to the 462-foot blast he launched against Kansas City on Sunday.

Baltimore's Dean Kremer (7-3) gave up two runs and eight hits over six innings.

Cavan Biggio homered for the Blue Jays, who fell to 0-4 against Baltimore this season. Down 11-2, Toronto charged back to make it respectable, which served as no consolation to Schneider.

"You just want those at-bats a little earlier in the game," the manager said. "Tonight wasn't our night."

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