Gunnar's slam leads O's to series win over Red Sox

BALTIMORE -- A Gunnar Henderson home run, a Corbin Burnes quality start and a win.

Call it a routine night at the ballpark for the Orioles over the first two months of the 2024 season.

Baltimore reached the one-third mark of its campaign with a 6-1 win over Boston on Wednesday at Camden Yards. Henderson hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the second, while Burnes tossed seven dominant innings to push the O’s (35-19) a season-high-tying 16 games above .500.

The Orioles are on pace to win 105 games, which would rank third in franchise history behind the 1969 (109-53) and ‘70 (108-54) teams.

“Winning ballgames, still got a lot of room for growth,” said Henderson, who slugged his second career slam. “We’re going to continue to go out there and try to put up some runs every game.”

That’s easy to do with a lineup featuring Henderson, whose 18 homers are tied with Houston’s Kyle Tucker for the MLB lead.

“It feels like every night he hits a homer,” fellow O’s infielder Ramón Urías said.

“Seems like a humble kid that just wants to play baseball,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Henderson. “And he's going to be a pain in the butt in the AL East for a while.”

Henderson provided the key blow against Boston starter Kutter Crawford, who allowed all five of his runs in the second. Urías tied the game at 1 with a two-out RBI single, then James McCann drew a walk (his first in 81 plate appearances this season) to load the bases for Henderson.

Naturally, Henderson jumped on a high 1-0 sweeper and jolted it a Statcast-projected 422 feet to right-center field, tying his longest home run of the season. It was also the 50th long ball of the 2023 AL Rookie of the Year’s young career.

“I mean, it's cool. I didn't even know that. It's definitely cool to hit that,” Henderson said. “Just got to keep going and just see where it goes.”

Only four players in O’s history (since 1954) have reached the 50-homer mark before turning 23 -- Manny Machado, Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, Boog Powell and Henderson, who is 22 years and 335 days old.

Henderson’s 50th homer came in his 238th career game, making him the second-fastest Oriole to reach the mark, behind only Ryan Mountcastle (231).

Henderson is on pace to slug 54 home runs this year, which would break the franchise record of 53, set by Chris Davis in 2013.

“He’s been great,” Burnes said. “He's electric on both sides of the ball -- makes the great plays at shortstop and obviously does pretty well at the plate as well. Runs the bases well, does everything well. He's definitely been our top player this year.”

Burnes has been quite good, too. Wednesday’s gem marked his career-high-tying seventh consecutive quality start -- the longest run by a Baltimore starter since Dylan Bundy had eight straight from April 5-May 12, 2017. Burnes allowed only one unearned run vs. Boston as the 29-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, issued three walks and notched five strikeouts.

On Burnes’ season-high 108th and final pitch, he struck out Ceddanne Rafaela swinging to strand a pair of Red Sox baserunners. Burnes has a 2.35 ERA through 12 starts in his first season with the Orioles.

“His stuff was so good. He was still throwing 96, 97 [mph] there in the seventh inning,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Every time he’s pitched, he’s given us a really good chance to win.”

The O’s continued their run of success against division opponents by taking two of three from the Red Sox. They have gone 18 straight series vs. AL East rivals without a series loss, the longest streak in team history since divisions were introduced in 1969, per the Elias Sports Bureau. They are 13-0-5 in divisional series over that span (dating back to April ‘23).

With two-thirds of the season remaining, the Orioles are poised to be in the postseason mix for a second straight year, as they sit a game and a half behind the Yankees in the AL East.

“We’re in a great spot. Still got a long way to go,” Burnes said. “I think we would all agree we’re playing pretty good baseball right now, but the most important part is to be healthy and play good baseball when you start October.

“Right now, it’s great winning all these games, but when you’re looking at the long run of things, you want to make sure you’re ready for September and October.”