Henderson hammers Yanks in Baltimore's Bronx blowout

NEW YORK -- Excuse Gunnar Henderson if he was at all tired by the end of the fourth inning of Thursday night’s game at Yankee Stadium. The 22-year-old Orioles rookie had already put in a full night’s work by that point.

Here were Henderson’s stats heading into the fifth: 4-for-4 with two singles, two home runs, five RBIs and three runs scored.

“I felt like I had a lot of at-bats, and the game wasn’t even halfway over,” Henderson said.

Henderson set the tone for the night by opening the contest with his first big league leadoff homer, and Baltimore cruised to a 14-1 rout of New York. The Orioles set season highs in both runs and hits (20) to earn a split of the four-game series.

The story of this game can best be told with stats and numbers, so here are 10 impressive facts from the O’s most lopsided win of the season thus far:

1. Henderson set career highs in both hits (four) and RBIs (five) while notching his first multihomer game.

2. Henderson was the second player in Orioles history (since 1954) with four hits in the first four innings, along with Cedric Mullins on April 4, 2021, at Boston.

3. Henderson was the first MLB player with four hits and two homers through four innings since Matt Carpenter (for the Cardinals vs. the Cubs on July 20, 2018).

4. Henderson was the second Baltimore rookie with four hits and five RBIs, along with Chris Richard (four hits and six RBIs vs. Cleveland on Sept. 3, 2000).

We’ll group these first four facts together, as Henderson was the clear star of the night.

“That was amazing,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s got so much power, to be able to go opposite field the way he did in the top of the first. He was just spraying the ball around hard. He’s a really exciting young player with a ton of tools.”

Henderson, who also hit a three-run homer during a five-run fourth, is having a remarkable turnaround to his rookie year. After ending May with a .201/.332/.370 slash line, he won American League Rookie of the Month for June by slashing .320/.354/.640 in 20 games. Through his first six games of July, he has a .296/.345/.519 line.

While Henderson has been raking for more than a month, Thursday’s first four innings may have marked his most impressive stretch yet. Can Orioles teammate Ryan O’Hearn remember seeing a teammate anywhere, any time have a better start to a game?

“You know what, I don’t know if I have,” O’Hearn said. “Pretty incredible, man. He’s a special talent. When he goes, obviously the rest of the team goes.”

5. Baltimore’s seven-run third was its second-biggest inning of the season. The only larger one was an eight-run seventh, which also occurred at Yankee Stadium on May 24.

6. The Orioles’ eight hits in the third were their most in an inning this year.

The O’s had no trouble against Yankees starter Luis Severino (seven earned runs on 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings), and they kept hitting after the right-hander departed. To follow up its massive third, Baltimore scored five more runs in the fourth to push its lead to 13-0.

“When you go up big early like that, it’s easy to just get lackadaisical,” said O’Hearn, who had three hits and four RBIs. “But pretty cool to see the guys continue to grind, continue to have good ABs, good swings. Goes to show how dangerous this lineup can be.”

7. The Orioles had eight or more hits in each of the four games at Yankee Stadium (and 10 or more in three of them) after recording fewer than eight in four of their previous five games.

8. Baltimore scored 20 runs over its final two games vs. New York. It plated only 18 total runs over its previous seven games, six of which were losses.

“It’s very fun, because we were kind of scuffling there for a little bit offensive-wise,” Henderson said. “To be able to come out and do that in a big way and split the series on the road was really big.”

9. It was only the ninth time in Orioles history (since 1954) that the team scored 14 or more runs in a game against the Yankees. The most recent occurrence had been a 14-5 win on April 8, 2014, at Yankee Stadium.

10. If the Yankees had swept the four-game series -- which they were halfway to doing -- they would have tied the Orioles in the standings. Instead, Baltimore (51-35), the top team in the AL Wild Card race, maintained its four-game gap with New York.

“A little bit of a gut check, those first two games,” O’Hearn said. “Really just awesome the way the guys showed up to the third game [Wednesday] and just completely forgot about the last two. Just showed up, fresh day, competed our [butts] off.”