Orioles hit five home runs and move 10 games above .500 (updated)

The Orioles wouldn’t take the field tonight until everyone gathered in the clubhouse to celebrate backup catcher Robinson Chirinos reaching 10 years of major league service time. They gave him a cake, a signed bat and custom-made sneakers. Manager Brandon Hyde hugged Chirinos twice, called him “brother.”

Chirinos propped the bat on his shoulder while expressing his appreciation and thanked them for the memories.

“And the ones coming,” he said, “because we’re not done yet.”

No, they aren’t.

Ryan Mountcastle pulled further away from his slump with a pair of two-run homers in his first two at-bats, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander reached the flag court and center field seats, respectively, in the fourth, five relievers combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings, and the Orioles locked up their fifth series win in a row with an 8-1 victory over the Athletics before an announced crowd of 30,853 at Camden Yards.

Adley Rutschman hit a 427-foot solo homer in the eighth, and the Orioles are 10 games above .500 for the first time since May 12, 2017. They’re the first team to surpass 70 wins after losing 100 or more games in the previous three full seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The three teams ahead of them in the wild card chase also won again to leave the Orioles 1 ½ games back.

"Honestly, we've just got to control what we can control," Hyde said. "Try to win as many games as we can. If we don't win, then nothing good's going to happen."

The five homers tonight tied a season high, done five times.

Mountcastle cleared the left field wall against Adam Oller with two outs in the first after Mullins’ leadoff walk, and he drove another fastball to right-center after Santander’s one-out walk in the third, giving him 21 home runs for the season.

"Nothing crazy, I'm just putting good swings on it finally and not missing the one pitch I get to hit, so hopefully I keep it going," Mountcastle said. "It seems like a lot of the guys on the team right now are starting to swing it well, too.

"It seems like for the past month, maybe two months, every game has been very important, and for me to start picking it up now is big for me and the team."

This is the sixth time in Mountcastle’s career, and the third this season, that he’s hit multiple homers in a game. His second shot made him 5-for-9 with three home runs this month. He has RBIs in four of his last five games.

The heat is on again, and that’s bad news for the rest of the league.

"Once you hit one, sometimes they tend to come in bunches," he said, "so hopefully they keep coming."

Orioles batters have six multi-homer games this season, the last before tonight from Jorge Mateo on Aug. 2 in Texas. Santander had the last one at home on May 16 against the Yankees.

Mountcastle’s homers traveled a combined 821 feet with exit velocities of 107.9 and 106.7 mph.

"Coming at the right time," Hyde said. "Just way better swings for me, more under control. Love seeing him hit that ball to right-center. That tells you that he's seeing the ball well and staying under control at the plate. Nice to see him get going again.

"We've got power throughout, we're athletic. Guys are getting better and we're pretty young. It's fun to watch."

Mullins hit his 13^th homer and Santander his team-leading 25^th in the fourth inning for a 6-1 lead. The Orioles kept mashing, the ballpark kept getting louder, and the winning streak stretched to four games.

Santander is the first Orioles switch-hitter with 25 home runs since Bobby Bonilla finished with 28 in 1996. He's the sixth switch-hitter in club history with 25 or more, joining Bonilla, Eddie Murray, Ken Singleton, Mickey Tettleton and Mike Young.

DL Hall made his second major league appearance in the eighth inning and his first as a reliever, as well as his Camden Yards debut, and he retired the side in order with two strikeouts on his changeup and a 98.2 mph fastball. He would have struck out the side except plate umpire Brian Knight squeezed the rookie on a 1-2 pitch.

"I just treated it like what I've been doing the past two weeks," Hall said. "Just getting comfortable coming out of the 'pen. I didn't really think any further than that. Just tried to keep it simple and tell myself I've been here before, I've done it before, so that's it.

"It's always exciting, especially in September. It's a good thing. It's nice to have a little lighter load and be able to go out and just get after it."

"His first outing, I really just wanted to give him a short-sprint outing," Hyde said. "One inning, hopefully it went well, and get him out of there, just to get a good taste in his mouth and be able to build from there. That was electric stuff, that was fantastic. Overpowering fastball, saw a couple good changeups. He's got a big arm, so nice to have him available the last month."

"For us in a 7-1 game," Mountcastle said, "bring in a guy throwing 98 with that type of stuff is fun."

Hall kept pounding his fist in his glove after the last strikeout.

"I was fired up," he said. "I feel like I've been sitting on Tampa (his debut) for three weeks, and just itching to get back up there and show what I can do. ... It's something I dreamed of since I was a kid, and especially being here at Camden Yards and feeling that crowd's energy tonight is unbelievable. Ever since I signed, that's what I've been itching to do."

It just took five years.

"You start down in low A and the big leagues feel like it's forever away," he said, "and sometimes it even feels like it's impossible, but anything's possible as long as I've got the Big Man above with me, and it was awesome and something I'll never forget."

Austin Voth allowed one run in the first inning after the first two batters singled, but he also threw 30 pitches. Seth Brown swung through a curveball on the 10^th pitch of his at-bat, and Shea Langeliers was caught looking at the curve to finally get Voth off the field.

The only damage beyond the workload was Sean Murphy’s fly ball to deep right-center that scored Tony Kemp.

Making another favorable comparison to the past, that’s the sort of inning that would have snowballed on an Orioles starter before 2022. Murphy’s ball probably clears the fence, the manager uses up his available relievers, and a phone call is made to rush multiple pitchers from Triple-A to Baltimore.

Voth threw 11 pitches while stranding a runner in the second, and he registered two more strikeouts to strand a runner in the third. The curveball accounted for three of his four strikeouts.

The chance for a deep start pretty much faded in the first, and Voth was gone after loading the bases in the fourth. Nick Allen lined to right, with the runners holding, Keegan Akin entered, and the Orioles turned a 6-4-3 double play on pinch-hitter Chad Pinder’s bouncer.

Voth was charged with one run and six hits in 3 1/3 innings, his shortest start since July 25. He threw 70 pitches and became the first pitcher in Orioles history to earn a team win in his first seven home starts.

"Just wasn't Voth's night," Hyde said. "Felt like something was a little bit off tonight. He's been so great for us and kind of due for a little bit of a hiccup. I think only giving up one run there was enormous. Didn't look like he could find the cutter and curveball. Kind of yanking both those pitches a little bit.

"Keegan, for me, that was the key to the game getting that double play with Pinder and keeping the score there."

Cionel Pérez stranded two runners in the seventh after replacing Joey Krehbiel because Mullins sprinted into right-center and made a sensational diving catch to keep the score 7-1.

Hyde’s lineup included Rutschman behind the plate, Gunnar Henderson at third base and Kyle Stowers in right field – the first draft selections for executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias in 2019. Henderson singled in the first inning to give him hits in his first four major league games, and he walked in the seventh. Stowers singled in the third. Rutschman had a run-scoring single in the sixth and added his ninth homer.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Orioles never started their top three picks from the same draft class in the same game before tonight. The Diamondbacks did it earlier this year with 2017 picks Pavin Smith, Drew Ellis and Daulton Varsho.

“It just shows you that we have some young, talented guys that got here right about the same time. Really talented,” Hyde said earlier today.

“It’s been a lot of fun to blend these young guys with some of the guys that have been here for a few years, but also some of the guys that are like Robby and Jordan Lyles. Both have 10 years in the big leagues, and I think (Rougned) Odor’s got nine. These types of guys that have been around for a little bit I think have blended with the young, talented guys that we brought here through the system.”

Odor pushed Chirinos’ face into the sheet cake, smearing icing in his hair, all of it captured on video and posted by the Orioles on social media. Chirinos straightened, a huge smile on his face, and raised both arms.

The sweetest reward would come a few hours later.

And they’re not done yet.

"A lot of fun, guys are having fun," Hyde said. "It's fun to see after the years we've had, to see the music up loud, guys enjoying themselves. It's a great atmosphere. Really happy for all of our players."

Down on the farm, shortstop Darell Hernaiz today hit his first home run with Double-A Bowie and drove in four runs. Chayce McDermott allowed one run and three hits and struck out six batters in five innings.

Joey Ortiz hit his first home run at Triple-A Norfolk. Jordan Westburg doubled and had three RBIs. Catcher Ramon Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with his first home run. Drew Rom allowed two runs in five innings and struck out seven batters with no walks.

Heston Kjerstad doubled tonight and is batting .214 with a .631 OPS at High-A Aberdeen. Ignacio Feliz tossed three scoreless relief innings with six strikeouts.