Gunnar shows off opposite-field pop as he prepares for Derby

SEATTLE -- “Slump” is way too harsh of a word to characterize Gunnar Henderson’s last game of June and first two of July. “Blip” might be more fitting; after hitting .458 in a six-game stretch, Henderson had gone 1-for-12 across the Orioles’ last game vs. Texas and first two in Seattle.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s over now.

“I didn’t really know where that came from, but yeah, that’s baseball, it’s going to happen,” Henderson said. “Just tried to limit it as much as I could. I feel like I was putting in some good work the past couple days just trying to figure it out and made some steps in the right direction today.”

Henderson, just voted as the AL’s starting shortstop for the upcoming All-Star Game at Globe Life Field in Arlington on July 16, ended his series in Seattle with a 3-for-5 day that included a double and a two-run homer in Baltimore’s 7-3 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

It’s his ninth three-hit game this season, tied for fourth in the American League. In eight of those games, he’s also gone yard.

Henderson got things started with a bang, leading the game off with a 109.9 mph double laced into the right-center-field gap, but he got a little too greedy and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple, with the Mariners executing a perfect relay.

Two innings later, he made sure to hit it where nobody would have a chance to catch him on the bases.

When the Mariners came to Camden Yards on May 18, Henderson sent an Andrés Muñoz heater a Statcast-projected 423 feet over the wall in left-center. Afterward, Seattle manager Scott Servais told reporters he’d known two left-handed hitters who had that sort of pop to left field: Barry Bonds and Josh Hamilton.

“It's very unique to see a left-handed hitter hit the ball that hard the other way,” he said.

Or, as Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said Thursday: “It’s a joke what he can do.”

Thursday, right-hander Bryce Miller left a 1-0 slider over the inner half of the plate, but Henderson was still able to launch it a Statcast-projected 378 feet the other way for his 27th home run of the season to put Baltimore ahead, 2-0. That’s already the fourth-most for an Orioles shortstop since 2000, behind Miguel Tejada in 2004 (34), J.J. Hardy in 2011 (30) and himself last season (28).

It’s Henderson’s fifth home run to the opposite field this season, tied for fifth in the Major Leagues.

“He’s really learned to stay on the ball so well,” Hyde said. “He’s hit one out over the wall we have in left at home. That home run today was like a right-handed hitter pulling a homer. He’s got all the tools.”

Henderson’s third hit of the day came on a dribbler into no-man’s-land in the fifth. He had two cracks at logging the Orioles’ eighth cycle but hit into a pair of hard outs, with a 99.9 mph liner up the middle caught by shortstop J.P. Crawford in the seventh and a 103.3 mph shot that deflected off Muñoz and turned into a game-ending groundout.

The Orioles would love for Henderson to get on one last hot streak entering his first All-Star Game. The night before the Midsummer Classic, he’ll participate in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby.

He’ll do it with an old friend pitching to him, too: Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton. Henderson played 65 games under Britton in 2022, and has since spent time with Britton at Spring Training.

“It’s going to be pretty special,” Henderson said. “I spent a lot of time with Buck at the Minor League level, and then at Spring Training. He was pumped up for it, and I’m looking forward to doing it with him.”

Henderson has already started to talk strategy with Adley Rutschman, who competed in the Derby last year in Seattle. Rutschman hit all 27 of his first-round homers to the pull-side -- 21 as a left-handed batter to right field, six as a righty to left.

Even with a former coach serving up meatballs by design, Henderson might not sit dead pull.

“I won’t lie to you, there will probably be a couple swings where I’ll go the other way,” he said with a smile. “But I’d guess a majority to the gap and pull side.”