O's 'young, hungry lineup' homering at a historic pace
Baltimore belts three homers for the fourth straight game to earn series win over Minnesota
BALTIMORE -- The Orioles lead MLB with 27 home runs. They’re pacing the American League with 100 runs scored through 17 games. The most impressive aspect of it all?
Nearly everybody in Baltimore’s lineup is mashing right now.
Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Ryan O'Hearn all went deep in the Orioles’ 11-3 victory over the Twins at Camden Yards on Tuesday night, marking the fourth straight game in which the O’s have slugged three-plus homers. It’s the first time they’ve had such a streak since May 21-24, 2013.
“It just feels like whenever we’re clicking, this is the kind of night we can have,” said Henderson, who belted a two-run home run in the second inning. “Just being able to put one of these nights together is really fun, and it just shows what this offense can do.”
Henderson leads Baltimore with five home runs, but his closest competition isn’t far behind. Westburg and O’Hearn both have four after their latest homers, while Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins also each have four.
With the balanced power surge, the Orioles have a chance to make franchise homer history.
The club record for most players with four-plus home runs through 20 games is five. The 2024 O’s have already matched that mark, set by the 1966 team that had Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, Curt Blefary, Davey Johnson and Frank Robinson all on early homer tears.
Baltimore has three more games to get another player to four home runs, and its best bet to do so seems to be Anthony Santander, who has three.
Of course, any Orioles hitter could get hot at any time considering the depth of their team.
“I’ve said it a million times -- we’ve got guys that can hit one through nine. Seven, eight, nine in our lineup are three really good hitters,” said O’Hearn, who homered on three consecutive days for the first time. “Guys grind out at-bats no matter what the score is. Nobody gives up any at-bats. We just want to keep our plan, stay relentless and keep trying to get runs on the board.”
O’Hearn, 30, isn’t an old player by any means. But he’s surrounded by youth in a Baltimore lineup filled with guys who are starting to click, some doing so in the Majors for the first time.
Last year, Westburg had only three homers in 228 plate appearances during his 68-game debut MLB stint. The 25-year-old infielder already has four home runs in 64 plate appearances this year, his latest being a two-run blast off Twins starter Chris Paddack in the third that marked Westburg’s first to clear the towering left-field wall at Camden.
Westburg (now hitting .316) had two hits and two RBIs, as did Cowser, the reigning AL Player of the Week who owns a .405 average. Henderson, the defending AL Rookie of the Year, led the O’s with three hits and three RBIs.
“It’s a young, hungry lineup. They had a really good approach,” said Paddack, who was tagged for nine runs and 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings. “Some of those pitches, I kind of just shook my head. You’ve got to tip your cap sometimes.”
These types of performances are what the Orioles envisioned would eventually happen as they rebuilt and stockpiled their farm system with top-end talent from 2019-22. They reaped the reward in ‘23, when they went an AL-best 101-61 to win the East.
Baltimore ranked seventh in MLB and fourth in the AL with 807 runs scored last year. In 2024, it could end up even better, now that it has former top prospects such as Cowser and Westburg who have joined the fray. Down the line, Jackson Holliday (MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect) could get going, too, after starting 1-for-22 over his first six big league games.
“The offense is special. It’s going to be special,” said starter Grayson Rodriguez, who allowed two runs and struck out six over six innings. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch. Any time we can put up [11 runs], it’s a lot of fun, especially to watch from the dugout.”
During the Orioles’ streak of four straight three-plus-homer games, they’ve collected 11 or more hits in each of those contests. They’re batting .342 and averaging 7.3 runs per game over that stretch.
For the 22-year-old Henderson, it’s even better to rake alongside players he developed relationships with before reaching the Majors.
“This is what you look forward to in the Minor Leagues,” Henderson said. “You want to do it, ultimately, at the big league level, and to be able to do that each and every day is really special.”