Henderson leads Orioles' 20-hit parade in 14-1 victory (updated)

NEW YORK – The crowd at Yankee Stadium had lost its last ounce of patience long before the 12^th batter stepped to the plate in the top of the third inning. Angry at Luis Severino. Outraged by the sloppy play. Reduced to cheering a ground ball, sarcasm the only weapon of retaliation.

The Orioles threw an offensive party tonight in someone else’s house. Gunnar Henderson played host.

Henderson collected four hits in four innings, including a pair of home runs. Ryan O’Hearn had a double and two-run single in the third. Twenty of the first 30 batters reached base.

Manager Brandon Hyde wanted a breather. He got a laugher.

Staggering after two games of the series, the Orioles came out swinging tonight and coasted to a 14-1 victory. They pounded out 20 hits. Kyle Bradish was working on a one-hit shutout through the fifth and no one seemed to notice.

A trip to Minnesota closes out the first half, and the Orioles boarded their flight with a 51-35 record and sore hands.

The Orioles’ highest run total against the Yankees is 18 on June 8, 1986 in the Bronx. They hadn’t scored 14 since April 8, 2014.

They built a 12-0 lead tonight in the fourth after Henderson drove Albert Abreu’s changeup 416 feet to right-center field, pausing to admire his three-run blast.

Henderson produced his first leadoff home run, two-homer game and four-hit game. All within four innings, when he also totaled five RBIs.

Curt Blefary is the only Orioles player younger than the 22-year-old Henderson with two home runs and four hits in a game, on July 3, 1965 during his rookie season. He’s also the first player with two homers and four hits in the first four innings since the Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter on July 20, 2018 against the Cubs – who had Hyde as their bench coach.

Cedric Mullins is the only other Orioles player with four hits in four innings, on April 4, 2021. Henderson, Mullins, Joey Rickard, Ryan Flaherty and Matt Angle are the only rookies with leadoff home runs.

"I just felt like I was really sticking to my approach," Henderson said. "Felt like no matter what they were throwing, I was sticking to it, and really trusted myself today."

Henderson joined Chris Richard in 2000 as the lone Orioles rookies with four hits and five RBIs in a game. He stepped to the plate with two outs in the fifth and two runners in scoring position and bounced out, probably from exhaustion. He struck out leading off the eighth and flied out in the ninth against Isiah Kiner-Falefa, pressed into pitching duty.

Mike Bordick in 1999 is the only other Orioles player with seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.

The historic significance of Henderson's performance didn't reach him.

"I just felt like I had a lot of at-bats and the game wasn't even halfway over," Henderson said with a laugh. "Ended up with seven on the day, so that was pretty funny."

Asked if he's ever had a night like this, Henderson said, "Maybe in high school. I don't think in the minors because I only faced a position player once in the minor leagues, and I cannot remember the score of the game."

The club's confidence in Henderson didn't waver as he struggled through the first two months. The opinion of him went unchanged. The Orioles know exactly what they've got.

"Even though the numbers didn't show it, there were signs that good things were going to happen," Hyde said. "There was some adversity early, but he's a great kid and worked extremely hard to try to figure it out a little bit. It's not going to be easy the rest of the way, but he's swinging the bat really well right now."

"He's a great player," Bradish said. "Early struggles, but we knew he was going to turn it around."

O’Hearn’s sacrifice fly increased the lead to 13-0 in the fourth. Severino was charged with seven runs and Abreu six. Kiner-Falefa tossed a scoreless ninth with one hit allowed. He should have started.

The eight hits in the third were the most by the Orioles since the first inning on Aug.12, 2017 in Oakland, and the most in an inning against the Yankees since May 9, 2009 at Camden Yards.

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

Henderson led off the game with his 12^th home run, a liner into the seats in the left field corner. He picked the right spot, a 97.4 mph fastball traveling only 346 feet.

"That was amazing," Hyde said. "He's got so much power, and to be able to go opposite field the way he did there in the top of the first. Just spraying the ball around hard. It's a really exciting young player with a ton of tools. And great, great team offense tonight."

Adam Frazier and Henderson singled in the second, after plate umpire Dan Iassogna didn’t give Severino a third strike with a slider that should have ended the inning. Henderson stayed in the box and lined a ball to left that Kiner-Falefa misplayed and couldn’t snare before it touched grass.

The Orioles didn’t score, but Adley Rutschman fouled off eight consecutive two-strike pitches before flying out on the 12^th pitch of his at-bat. Severino saw his count grow to 56 in two innings.

He’d watch most of the game from the clubhouse.

Santander led off the third with a single over right fielder Billy McKinney’s head, and doubles by O’Hearn, Mullins and Jordan Westburg plated three runs.

Mullins has three doubles in the last two nights. If rust accumulated from his stay on the injured list, he left it in piles at Yankee Stadium.

Frazier singled for the Orioles’ ninth hit in 2 1/3 innings against Severino. Henderson singled with two outs for a 5-0 lead, the crowd kept booing, and manager Aaron Boone finally went to his bullpen.

As if that would help.

Rutschman had an RBI single off Abreu, Santander was hit by a pitch and O’Hearn followed with his two-run single.

The Orioles loaded the bases against Wandy Peralta with one out in the eighth and James McCann scored on Mullins’ fielder’s choice grounder.

Peralta threw inside to O’Hearn, who glared at him, and hit Cowser. Iassogna warned both dugouts, Hyde came onto the field to object and was tossed. With a 14-0 lead.

Has got to be some sort of record.

"A weird situation. That's my weirdest ejection of all time. First one up two touchdowns," Hyde said.

"If they were going to put a warning out, I just didn't understand why they didn't throw him out if they thought that was deemed a warning at that point. I was just going to ask that and I got ejected for coming out for that. I didn't know that was an ejectable offense."

The 14 runs and 20 hits were high marks for the season.

"First two games, we did not play very well and that was really disappointing," Hyde said. "Love the way we responded yesterday, and then Gunnar set the tone tonight."

The Orioles came within an out of their fifth shutout. Eduardo Bazardo made his Orioles debut in the ninth and allowed an unearned run.

The toughest part of Bradish’s night was staying loose in the dugout.

"That is not easy to do," Hyde said. "A big lead, ton of time waiting, and to be able to come out strike one right away to the first hitter, be able to go after that first guy, get a quick first out, a lot of times you see that go backwards, especially for a young pitcher. To be able to pitch in that kind of game and go six scoreless was fantastic."

Said Bradish: "It's tough to get in a rhythm, but I'll take that any day I pitch. It's not so much staying loose, just staying locked in. Forty-five minutes between innings, your mind tends to wander and you get caught up watching the game, but it was a great offensive performance."

Anthony Rizzo’s first-inning single was the only hit against Bradish until Gleyber Torres singled with one out in the sixth. Harrison Bader singled with two outs.

Bradish’s six scoreless innings lowered his ERA to 3.32. He’s allowed two runs or fewer in his last five starts.  

Frazier started in left field, with Cowser moving to center, after Aaron Hicks was scratched from the lineup with a sore left Achilles tendon. Jose Trevino led off the eighth with a single and Frazier threw him out at second base.

A smattering of boos followed. The crowd had long given up on this game.

* Ryan Mountcastle had a game-tying RBI single in the third inning for Triple-A Norfolk. Connor Norby and Maverick Handley had RBI singles in the fourth.

Double-A Bowie’s Carlos Tavera allowed one run and two hits in five innings, with five walks and four strikeouts.

Maxwell Costas homered twice for High-A Aberdeen. Frederick Bencosme and Creed Willems also homered. Willems had four RBIs.

Jackson Holliday went 2-for-4 with a walk and RBI.

Single-A Delmarva first baseman Anderson De Los Santos hit a grand slam.