Orioles hit five of game's seven home runs in 9-3 win (updated)

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde describes rookie Kyle Bradish as having electric stuff, with plus pitches across the board. Says it’s about locating and working ahead in the count, “and not having the high pitch-count innings that he’s had trouble with.”

Bradish’s first pitch of the game tonight was a strike, and Christopher Morel drove it 429 feet to left field for a leadoff home run.

Jumping hard on a trend, Cedric Mullins led off the bottom of the first with a home run to right field off Cubs starter Keegan Thompson, and Trey Mancini launched the next pitch into the home bullpen.

Thompson hit Rougned Odor and Ramón Urías with one out in the second, fans booed, and Jorge Mateo changed their tune with a three-run shot to left. Austin Hays later became the fourth Orioles player to homer into the second deck.

Rain kept falling, baseballs kept flying, and the Orioles welcomed back the Cubs to Baltimore with a 9-3 victory.

Urías homered into the corner of the bullpen at the 90-degree angle in the sixth inning, relievers covered the last 4 1/3 innings, and the Orioles improved to 24-33.

Hays joined Mark Reynolds, Manny Machado and most recently Maikel Franco last season as Orioles who put a ball in the second deck, with the outfielder carrying Alec Mills’ changeup 464 feet, per Statcast - topping his previous farthest by 43 feet. It’s happened seven times overall.

"I did not know it was going to be headed to the second deck," Hyde said. "I was hoping it wasn't going to hook, and it kind of straightened out. He hit it great, the reaction in the dugout was like a lot of our home run reactions. There was a lot of excitement. There's a gold chain. Guys were extremely happy.

"Good for Haysie. He took some good swings tonight."

Mancini had the longest Orioles home run this season with Saturday’s 438-footer. Hays’ blast is the fourth longest for anyone here in the Statcast era, which began in 2015.

"I knew I hit it really good, but where it started down the line, I figured it was going to hook foul, but it almost came back fair a little bit more," he said. "I didn't even know it went into the second deck until they told me when I was in the dugout. The ball was jumping tonight a little bit."

Hays hadn't put a ball in that area during batting practice, let alone a game.

"I've never sniffed the second deck before," he said. "I don't know if there was a gust of wind or what happened on that one, but all the stars aligned for me to get one up there."

It was the longest home run by an Oriole since Keon Broxton tagged one 474 feet on May 24, 2019 in Colorado, and it kept Hays on an impressive roll. His body hasn't let him down this year, and all the tools are unlocked.

"I think the health goes with that," he said, "just being in the lineup every day, being available for Hyder to just keep penciling me in every day."

Thompson was 6-0 with a 1.99 ERA before tonight. The Orioles led 7-1 by the third, when Anthony Santander singled and came home on Hays’ double into the left field corner, with catcher Willson Contreras dropping the ball, and Ryan Mountcastle following with a sacrifice fly.

Hays dived across the plate to narrowly beat the throw, jumped to his feet and signaled with great enthusiasm that he was safe. The batting glove is gone from Hays’ left hand. The energy and power still run high.

Thompson didn’t return for the fourth after matching his home run total in one night.

Tonight marked the first time the Orioles and their opponent hit leadoff home runs in the first inning since Houston’s George Springer and Adam Jones on Aug. 19, 2016. No word on the last time both players were center fielders with the initials C.M.

The Orioles didn’t have back-to-back homers to begin a game since Seth Smith and Manny Machado on July 7, 2017 in Minnesota.

"I thought the ball was really carrying tonight," Hyde said. "Not to take anything away from the homers, but even, there were a lot of deep fly outs. We've seen it here before. Balls carry here."

Mateo produced the Orioles’ 11th three-run homer this season, topping their 2021 total.

"It was a big swing by Mateo hitting that three-run homer to really get us going," Hays said. "Ced and Trey going back-to-back to start it off really sets the tone for the day. They made some mistakes tonight and we were able to capitalize on some pitches that were over the heart of the plate."

The Cubs hadn’t played at Camden Yards since sweeping a three-game series in ’17. Hyde hadn’t managed against them until tonight, reconnecting with friends from his days as their first base and bench coach. Those ties don’t disintegrate with an address change.

Bradish didn’t let a fast lead disappear, but he fell an out short of qualifying for the win.

The Cubs threatened in the third with back-to-back walks to start the inning, but Bradish struck out the next batters and got a ground ball. His pitch count stood at 74. Now, it was a question of how far Hyde would extend him.

A one-out walk in the fourth didn’t hurt Bradish beyond leaving him at 88 pitches. Bryan Baker warmed as the rookie began the fifth, and Contreras hit the first pitch 437 feet to left field with an exit velocity of 114.7 mph.

Two outs followed, but Patrick Wisdom walked with the count full and Hyde removed him at 105 pitches. Two runs and four hits allowed in 4 2/3, but also five walks to match his strikeout total.

"When you're up by seven or eight, I feel just the need to get deep into the game and save the bullpen for those closer games," Bradish said. "We've been working on some mechanics last week, felt really good going into this outing. Obviously, the rain played a little factor into it, but just got to compete more."

Bradish hadn’t thrown more than 91 pitches in the majors and never reached 105 in the minors. Hyde went as far as he felt comfortable.

"Of course, I wanted him to try to get through five there," Hyde said. "The pitch count got to a really uncomfortable number for me, just because there was a foul-ball war with Wisdom. ... Another lesson learned a little bit for him. Just got to try to keep your pitch count a little lower."

Bryan Baker allowed a run in the sixth on Morel’s RBI triple, but Urías took Mills deep in the bottom half of the inning for the game’s seventh homer.

"Ramón’s got some sneaky power," Hyde said. "Balls really carry off his bat."

Nick Vespi tossed a scoreless eighth. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in 18 1/3 innings in Triple-A and 4 1/3 in the majors.

Adley Rutschman singled in the eighth to break an 0-for-20 streak.

Down on the farm, Triple-A Norfolk’s game in Nashville was postponed by rain. The lineup had Terrin Vavra leading off and playing second base, followed by Gunnar Henderson at third base and Jordan Westburg at shortstop. Richie Martin was supposed to play center field.

Andrew Daschbach hit a three-run homer for Double-A Bowie. Zach Peek allowed one run and struck out six batters in four innings.

High Single-A Aberdeen catcher Ramon Rodriguez had three hits, including a home run. Peter Van Loon allowed one run and struck out six batters in five innings, and Daniel Federman earned his first save with four scoreless innings and nine strikeouts.

Single-A Delmarva catcher Creed Willems hit his second home run.